Venango County, in Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Venango 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
Venango County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Venango 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 Venango County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Venango County — the short answer
Venango County, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 432K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 432K 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 6a is Venango County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Venango County's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Venango County
Across a year, Venango County accumulates about 2,348 growing degree days above 50°F, about 199 fewer than the middle Pennsylvania county — ahead of 19 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 Venango County
Across Venango County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Hanover, Cookport, and Hazleton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
23%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Venango County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Venango County as moderately well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 23% well drained, 15% somewhat poorly drained.
Hanover is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Cookport (19%) and Hazleton (10%).
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 Venango County
Each reading below is measured for Venango 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 Venango County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Venango County runs about pH 4.6–5.5, 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
MeasuredVenango County runs about 193 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
MeasuredVenango County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Venango County is in
Venango County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Appalachians (42%), Western Allegheny Plateau (40%) and Erie Drift Plain (18%). 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 Venango County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Venango County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 193-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 Venango County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Venango County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Venango County, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Venango County
USGS estimates 15,698 lb of Glyphosate on Venango County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (5,706 lb) and Metolachlor-s (4,888 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 Venango County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Venango County — 378 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Venango 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 Venango County
Closest first, across Venango County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LIFE MINISTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RENO VOL FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- K MART 7546Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FAST & FRESHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CRIVELLI BUICK PONTIACUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KLAPEC TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PENNZOIL-QUAKER STATE COToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- WEBCO INDUSTRIES, INC. - RENO DIVISIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- WEBCO INDUSTRIES, INC. - RENO DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- LYONS TRANSPORT LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VENANGO MACHINE PRODBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- LIBERTY ELECTRONICS - RENOToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Venango 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 Venango County.
Total Sites
378
across Venango County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Venango County
Severity Distribution
across Venango County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Venango County, two things run higher than the national average across Venango County — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Venango 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 Venango County average
Your land is one point inside Venango County
Everything above resolves to Venango County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 432K 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 Venango County Average
Venango County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Venango County
- ●One soil character for all of Venango County
- ●Frost dates read at Venango County's scale: Apr 22 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Venango County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Venango County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Venango County, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Venango County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Venango County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Venango County average
How we know this about Venango 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 Venango County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Venango County
When does frost risk typically end in Venango County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Venango County typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Venango County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Venango County sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 18, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Venango County?
The federal record around Venango County is a meaningful one — 378 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (208), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Venango County's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Venango 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 Venango County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Venango County's own scale — its own ~193-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 378 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Venango County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Venango County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Venango CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 378 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Venango County's boundary and the 431,529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Venango County spans, North Central Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Venango County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Venango 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 Venango County — the ~193 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 Venango County's 431,529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 378 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 Venango Countyread your own land →