Schuylkill County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Schuylkill County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Schuylkill County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Schuylkill County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Schuylkill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Schuylkill County — the short answer
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 498K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 498K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6b is Schuylkill County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schuylkill County's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Schuylkill County
Across a year, Schuylkill County accumulates about 2,619 growing degree days above 50°F, about 72 more than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 38 of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Schuylkill County
Across Schuylkill County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Dekalb, Leck Kill, and Lehew are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
4%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Schuylkill County
The USDA soil survey maps 70% of Schuylkill County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 14% moderately well drained, 6% somewhat excessively drained.
Dekalb is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Leck Kill (8%) and Lehew (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Schuylkill County
Each reading below is measured for Schuylkill County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Schuylkill County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Schuylkill County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredSchuylkill County runs about 195 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSchuylkill County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Schuylkill County is in
Schuylkill County sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Schuylkill County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Schuylkill County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 195-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile.
Is it too late to plant in Schuylkill County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Schuylkill County
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Schuylkill County, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly24 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Schuylkill County
USGS estimates 53,730 lb of Glyphosate on Schuylkill County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (33,203 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (18,258 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Schuylkill County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Schuylkill County — 955 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Schuylkill County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Schuylkill County
Closest first, across Schuylkill County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FISHBACH COMBUSTION TURBINE GENERATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- POTTSVILLE MILLS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CAPITAL TRAILWAYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- POP KOP AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MURPHYS GULF SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AVENUES PEACOCK ST PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JH ZERBEY NEWS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DOCTORS CHOICEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WORLD RESOURCES COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WADESVILLE STRIPPINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WORLD RESOURCES COBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- WORLD RESOURCES COToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schuylkill County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Schuylkill County.
Sources Checked
across Schuylkill County
Severity Distribution
across Schuylkill County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schuylkill County, two things run higher than the national average across Schuylkill County — CAFO (14 sites) and PFAS (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Schuylkill County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schuylkill County average
Your land is one point inside Schuylkill County
Everything above resolves to Schuylkill County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 498K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at county scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better county average.
Your Lot vs the Schuylkill County Average
Schuylkill County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Schuylkill County
- ●One soil character for all of Schuylkill County
- ●Frost dates read at Schuylkill County's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schuylkill County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Schuylkill County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schuylkill County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schuylkill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schuylkill County average
How we know this about Schuylkill County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Schuylkill County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Schuylkill County
When does frost risk typically end in Schuylkill County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schuylkill County typically lands around Apr 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 5.
How long is the growing season in Schuylkill County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schuylkill County sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 12, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schuylkill County?
The federal record around Schuylkill County runs heavier than most — 955 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (541), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Schuylkill County's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schuylkill County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Pennsylvania's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Schuylkill County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Schuylkill County's own scale — its own ~195-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 955 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schuylkill County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schuylkill County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Schuylkill CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 955 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Schuylkill County's boundary and the 498,413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Schuylkill County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Schuylkill County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Schuylkill County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Schuylkill County — the ~195 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Schuylkill County's 498,413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 955 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Schuylkill Countyread your own land →