Curtisville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Curtisville, 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 Curtisville 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 Curtisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Curtisville — the short answer
Curtisville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 911 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 911 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 6b is Curtisville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Curtisville's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Curtisville
Each reading below is measured for Curtisville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCurtisville runs about 208 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
MeasuredCurtisville 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 Curtisville is in
Curtisville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Curtisville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Curtisville
Every plant below cleared Curtisville's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Curtisville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Curtisville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Curtisville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Curtisville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Curtisville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JURA TRACTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- POPEYES MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MORROW REFUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VICS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NPTCO CURTISVILLE EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GLASSMERE FUELSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GLASSMERE FUEL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DEER LAKES SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WEST DEER TWP ALLEGHENY CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WEST DEER TOWNSHIPBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- BT 406Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- PANNIER CORP/GIBSONIABrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Curtisville'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 Curtisville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Curtisville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Curtisville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Curtisville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Curtisville — PFAS (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (80 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Curtisville
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 Curtisville average
Your land is one point inside Curtisville
Everything above resolves to Curtisville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 911 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 Curtisville Average
Curtisville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Curtisville
- ●One soil character for all of Curtisville
- ●Frost dates read at Curtisville's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Curtisville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Curtisville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Curtisville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Curtisville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Curtisville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Curtisville average
How we know this about Curtisville
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 Curtisville’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 Curtisville
When does frost risk typically end in Curtisville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Curtisville typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Curtisville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Curtisville typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Curtisville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Curtisville sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 21, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Curtisville?
The federal record around Curtisville is a meaningful one — 916 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (430), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Curtisville?
From about Oct 5 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 Nov 4 (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 Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Curtisville's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Curtisville'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 Curtisville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Curtisville's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 911 acres it covers and 916 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Curtisville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Curtisville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 4 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 916 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Curtisville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Curtisville's boundary and the 911 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Curtisville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Curtisvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Curtisville's 911 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Curtisville's 911 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Curtisville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 911 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles 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 Curtisville-wide figureread your own land →