Elkland, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elkland, 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 Elkland 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 Elkland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elkland — the short answer
Elkland, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is Elkland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elkland's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elkland
Each reading below is measured for Elkland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElkland runs about 164 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
MeasuredElkland sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Elkland is in
Elkland sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elkland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tioga County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Elkland
Every plant below cleared Elkland's own zone 5b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elkland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Elkland
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Elkland, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elkland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elkland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELKLAND EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ELKLAND ACORNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- F & C AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ELKLAND CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- METAMORA PRODUCTS CORPORATION/THE TAPCO GROUPToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- WHITCOMB FORD INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ELKLAND AREA HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ELKLAND BORO STPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 7489Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- OSCEOLA BIG MUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TI 147Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- ROBERT GEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elkland'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 Elkland.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Elkland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elkland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elkland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elkland, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Elkland. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elkland
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 Elkland average
Your land is one point inside Elkland
Everything above resolves to Elkland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Elkland Average
Elkland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Elkland
- ●One soil character for all of Elkland
- ●Frost dates read at Elkland's scale: May 4 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elkland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elkland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elkland, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elkland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elkland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elkland average
How we know this about Elkland
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 Elkland’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 Elkland
When does frost risk typically end in Elkland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elkland typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Elkland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elkland typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elkland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elkland sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 1, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elkland?
The federal record around Elkland shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elkland?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elkland's scale — its 5b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elkland'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 Elkland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elkland's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,673 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elkland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elkland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 15 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elkland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elkland's boundary and the 1,673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Elkland sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Elklandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elkland's 1,673 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tioga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tioga 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 Tioga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elkland's 1,673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elkland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,673 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 Elkland-wide figureread your own land →