Davidsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Davidsville, 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 Davidsville 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 Davidsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Davidsville — the short answer
Davidsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Davidsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Davidsville's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Davidsville
Each reading below is measured for Davidsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDavidsville 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
MeasuredDavidsville 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 Davidsville is in
Davidsville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Davidsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Somerset County.
What Grows in Davidsville
Every plant below cleared Davidsville's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Davidsville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Davidsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Davidsville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Davidsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Davidsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST DAVIDS EVAN LUTH CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BRANTS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WYANDTS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ADVANCED CUTTING SYSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOCKHEED MARTIN AEROPARTS INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- JOHNSTOWN REGIONAL ENERGY - SOUTHERN ALLEGHENIESBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- RIVERSIDE GRACE BRETHREN CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SOUTH ALLEGHENIES LDFLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RALPH BLOUGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- RAY MILLER JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DAVIDSVILLE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MLAKER TRANSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Davidsville'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 Davidsville.
Total Sites
536
within ~10 miles of Davidsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Davidsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Davidsville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Davidsville
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 Davidsville average
Your land is one point inside Davidsville
Everything above resolves to Davidsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Davidsville Average
Davidsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Davidsville
- ●One soil character for all of Davidsville
- ●Frost dates read at Davidsville's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Davidsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Davidsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Davidsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Davidsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Davidsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Davidsville average
How we know this about Davidsville
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 Davidsville’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 Davidsville
When does frost risk typically end in Davidsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Davidsville typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Davidsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Davidsville typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Davidsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Davidsville sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 14, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Davidsville?
The federal record around Davidsville is a meaningful one — 536 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Davidsville?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Davidsville's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Davidsville'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 Davidsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Davidsville's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,476 acres it covers and 536 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Davidsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Davidsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 28 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 536 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Davidsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Davidsville's boundary and the 1,476 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 ecoregion at Davidsville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Davidsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Davidsville's 1,476 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Somerset County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Somerset 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 Somerset County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Davidsville's 1,476 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Davidsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,476 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Davidsville-wide figureread your own land →