Fairchance, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Fairchance, 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 Fairchance 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 Fairchance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairchance — the short answer
Fairchance, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 760 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 760 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 Fairchance's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairchance's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairchance
Each reading below is measured for Fairchance itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFairchance runs about 206 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
MeasuredFairchance 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 Fairchance is in
Fairchance sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairchance's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fairchance
Every plant below cleared Fairchance's own zone 6b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairchance?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Fairchance
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Fairchance, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairchance
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairchance. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAVNERS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- KAPALKO AUTO SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAIRCHANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAIRCHANCE BORO FAYETTE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FREDS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- USHHS CDC NIOSH LLLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CTR INDEPENDENT 9 FAIRCHANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GB COAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FA 37Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- GEROME MFG CO INC/OLIVERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ARGON ST SMITHFIELDBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- JOHNSON MATTHEY INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairchance'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 Fairchance.
Total Sites
345
within ~10 miles of Fairchance
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairchance
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairchance
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairchance, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Fairchance. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Fairchance
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 Fairchance average
Your land is one point inside Fairchance
Everything above resolves to Fairchance as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 760 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 Fairchance Average
Fairchance Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fairchance
- ●One soil character for all of Fairchance
- ●Frost dates read at Fairchance's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairchance's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairchance
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairchance, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairchance averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairchance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairchance average
How we know this about Fairchance
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 Fairchance’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 Fairchance
When does frost risk typically end in Fairchance?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairchance typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Fairchance?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairchance typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairchance?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairchance sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairchance?
The federal record around Fairchance is a meaningful one — 345 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (179), 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 Fairchance?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairchance's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairchance'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 Fairchance’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fairchance's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 345 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairchance's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fairchance's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 2 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 345 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairchance, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairchance's boundary and the 760 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fairchance sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fairchancelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairchance's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairchance's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairchance you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 760 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 Fairchance-wide figureread your own land →
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