Tioga County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Tioga County lies within the Northern Tier (north-central Pennsylvania high plateau) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Tioga County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tioga 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 Tioga County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tioga County — the short answer
Tioga County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 726K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 726K 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 5b is Tioga County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tioga County's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Tioga County
Across a year, Tioga County accumulates about 1,967 growing degree days above 50°F, about 580 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 4 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 Tioga County
Across Tioga County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Oquaga, Volusia, and Mardin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.0, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tioga County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Tioga County as well drained — but another 47% drains differently: 29% somewhat poorly drained, 14% moderately well drained.
Oquaga is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Volusia (21%) and Mardin (9%).
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 Tioga County
Each reading below is measured for Tioga 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 Tioga County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Tioga County runs about pH 5.5–6.0, 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
MeasuredTioga County runs about 163 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
MeasuredTioga County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Tioga County is in
Tioga County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Appalachians (51%) and Northern Allegheny Plateau (49%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Tioga County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tioga County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 163-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 Tioga County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Tioga County
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Tioga County, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle10 documented records
- monarch butterfly27 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Tioga County
USGS estimates 28,371 lb of Glyphosate on Tioga County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (12,519 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (7,434 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 Tioga County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tioga County — 449 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Tioga County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Tioga County
Closest first, across Tioga County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHARLESTON TWP TIOGA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CANYON COUNTRY RESTORATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TI 262Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF TECH N CAMPUSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- STOKESDALE ACORN MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ACORN MKT 12Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SFK VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BROAD ACRES NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WELLSBORO FIRE DEPT TRAINING CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- UGI UTILITIES INC WELLSBOROBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- METALKRAFTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- METALKRAFTBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tioga 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 Tioga County.
Total Sites
449
across Tioga County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Tioga County
Severity Distribution
across Tioga County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tioga County, two things run higher than the national average across Tioga County — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (152 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tioga 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 Tioga County average
Your land is one point inside Tioga County
Everything above resolves to Tioga County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 726K 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 Tioga County Average
Tioga County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Tioga County
- ●One soil character for all of Tioga County
- ●Frost dates read at Tioga County's scale: May 3 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tioga County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tioga County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tioga County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tioga County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tioga County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tioga County average
How we know this about Tioga 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 Tioga County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tioga County
When does frost risk typically end in Tioga County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tioga County typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Tioga County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tioga County sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 29, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tioga County?
The federal record around Tioga County is a meaningful one — 449 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (185), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Tioga County's scale — its 5b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tioga 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 Tioga County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Tioga County's own scale — its own ~163-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 449 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tioga County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tioga County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tioga CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 449 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Tioga County's boundary and the 725,690 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Tioga County spans, North Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Tioga County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tioga 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 Tioga County — the ~163 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 Tioga County's 725,690 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 449 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 Tioga Countyread your own land →