Delta, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Delta, 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 Delta 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 Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Delta — the short answer
Delta, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 168 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 Delta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Delta's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Delta
Each reading below is measured for Delta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDelta runs about 228 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
MeasuredDelta 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 Delta is in
Delta sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Delta's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Delta
Every plant below cleared Delta's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Delta?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Delta
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Delta, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Delta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Delta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DELTA CARDIFF VOL FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HESS OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MORRIS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- TAYLORS GULF SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Cardiff Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GEORGES CUSTOM BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Lynn NelsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YO 503Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- PEACH BOTTOM TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Heaps Oil Company, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- YO 514Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GLACKINS HIGHWAY SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Delta'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 Delta.
Total Sites
353
within ~10 miles of Delta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Delta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Delta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Delta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Delta — CAFO (15 sites) and Nitrate (130 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Delta
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 Delta average
Your land is one point inside Delta
Everything above resolves to Delta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 168 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 Delta Average
Delta Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Delta
- ●One soil character for all of Delta
- ●Frost dates read at Delta's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Delta's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Delta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Delta, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Delta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Delta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Delta average
How we know this about Delta
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 Delta’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 Delta
When does frost risk typically end in Delta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Delta typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Delta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Delta typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Delta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Delta sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 29, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Delta?
The federal record around Delta is a meaningful one — 353 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), 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 Delta?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Delta's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Delta'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 Delta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Delta's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 353 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Delta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Delta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 12 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 353 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Delta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Delta's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Delta's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Deltalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Delta's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Delta's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Delta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 168 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 Delta-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaDelta sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides