East Rochester, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Rochester, 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 East Rochester 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 East Rochester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
East Rochester — the short answer
East Rochester, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 234 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 234 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 East Rochester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Rochester's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Rochester
Each reading below is measured for East Rochester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Rochester runs about 212 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
MeasuredEast Rochester 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 East Rochester is in
East Rochester sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Rochester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in East Rochester
Every plant below cleared East Rochester's own zone 6b and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Rochester?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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 East Rochester
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from East Rochester, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Rochester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Rochester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COGOS 483Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- GETGO 3062Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VGP HOLDINGS LLC/ROCHESTER PLTToxics Release Inventory · 550 ft
- VGP HOLDINGS LLC/ROCHESTER PLTBrownfields · 550 ft
- MONRO MUFFLER BRAKE #150Brownfields · 1100 ft
- VALVOLINE CO INDUSTRIAL COATINGS (TECTYL)Toxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- ALL METALS RECYCLING LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WI SNYDER CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BEAVER CNTY MAINT BLDG 1120Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BEAVER CONCRETE & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FIRST RECOVERYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MARINO BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Rochester'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 East Rochester.
Total Sites
904
within ~10 miles of East Rochester
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Rochester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Rochester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Rochester, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Rochester — PFAS (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (86 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 East Rochester
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 East Rochester average
Your land is one point inside East Rochester
Everything above resolves to East Rochester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 234 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 East Rochester Average
East Rochester Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across East Rochester
- ●One soil character for all of East Rochester
- ●Frost dates read at East Rochester's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Rochester's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Rochester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Rochester, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Rochester averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Rochester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Rochester average
How we know this about East Rochester
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 East Rochester’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 East Rochester
When does frost risk typically end in East Rochester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Rochester typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in East Rochester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Rochester typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Rochester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Rochester sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 24, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Rochester?
The federal record around East Rochester is a meaningful one — 904 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (447), 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 East Rochester?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Rochester's scale — its 6b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Rochester'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 East Rochester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Rochester's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 234 acres it covers and 904 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Rochester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Rochester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 7 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 904 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Rochester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Rochester's boundary and the 234 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Rochester's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Rochesterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Rochester's 234 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaver 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 Beaver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Rochester's 234 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Rochester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 234 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 East Rochester-wide figureread your own land →