Elco, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Elco, 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 Elco 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 Elco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elco — the short answer
Elco, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 179 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 179 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 Elco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elco's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elco
Each reading below is measured for Elco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElco runs about 214 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
MeasuredElco 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 Elco is in
Elco sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Elco
Every plant below cleared Elco's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elco?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Elco
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Elco, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HENWIL CORPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- HENWIL CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- REGLUATOR STATION 964 HIGH ROAD 700595Brownfields · 2200 ft
- NEO SOLUTIONS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HENWILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PUMP STA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WATER & SEW TRMT PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PUMP STA 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEWELL CAR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROSCOE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROSCOE AMOCOBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CALIFORNIA UNIVERSITY PABrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elco'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 Elco.
Total Sites
528
within ~10 miles of Elco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elco, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Elco. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Elco
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 Elco average
Your land is one point inside Elco
Everything above resolves to Elco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 179 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 Elco Average
Elco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Elco
- ●One soil character for all of Elco
- ●Frost dates read at Elco's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elco's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elco, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elco average
How we know this about Elco
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 Elco’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 Elco
When does frost risk typically end in Elco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elco typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Elco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elco typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elco sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 23, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elco?
The federal record around Elco is a meaningful one — 528 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (301), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Elco?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elco's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elco'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 Elco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elco's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 179 acres it covers and 528 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 6 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 528 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elco, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elco's boundary and the 179 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elco's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elcolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elco's 179 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elco's 179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Elco-wide figureread your own land →
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