Cressona, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cressona, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cressona lot. 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 Cressona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cressona — the short answer
Cressona, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 639 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 639 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 7a is Cressona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cressona's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cressona
Each reading below is measured for Cressona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCressona runs about 204 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCressona sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Cressona is in
Cressona sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cressona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Cressona
Every plant below cleared Cressona's own zone 7a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cressona?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cressona
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Cressona, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cressona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cressona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLSTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- SCHUYLKILL HAVEN BODY SHOPBrownfields · 250 ft
- CRESSONA AGWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CRESSONA BORO MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CAPITAL PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 20 POTTSVILLE ST CRESSONA PA0248Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CRESSONA KNIT PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HYDRO EXTRUSION USA LLC - CRESSONA FACILITYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- HYDRO EXTRUSION USA LLC - CRESSONA FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- CRESSONA TRUCKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BAY MOR PET FEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NORTHEAST PRESTRESSED PROD LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cressona'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 Cressona.
Total Sites
471
within ~10 miles of Cressona
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
23 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cressona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cressona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cressona, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Cressona. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Cressona
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 Cressona average
Your land is one point inside Cressona
Everything above resolves to Cressona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 639 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Cressona Average
Cressona Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cressona
- ●One soil character for all of Cressona
- ●Frost dates read at Cressona's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cressona's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cressona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cressona, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cressona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cressona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cressona average
How we know this about Cressona
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cressona’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cressona
When does frost risk typically end in Cressona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cressona typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Cressona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cressona typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cressona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cressona sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 15, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cressona?
The federal record around Cressona is a meaningful one — 471 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (262), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cressona?
From about Sep 29 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cressona's scale — its 7a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cressona's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cressona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cressona's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 639 acres it covers and 471 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cressona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cressona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 29 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 471 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cressona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cressona's boundary and the 639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cressona's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cressonalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cressona's 639 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill County
- The growing challenges every Pennsylvania grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Pennsylvania
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cressona's 639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cressona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 639 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cressona-wide figureread your own land →
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