Fallston, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fallston, 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 Fallston 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 Fallston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fallston — the short answer
Fallston, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 Fallston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fallston's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fallston
Each reading below is measured for Fallston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFallston runs about 209 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
MeasuredFallston 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 Fallston is in
Fallston sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fallston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in Fallston
Every plant below cleared Fallston's own zone 6b and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fallston?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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 Fallston
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Fallston, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fallston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fallston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COL FIN SPECIALTY STEEL MFGToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- BEAVER VALLEY TRUCK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- VALLEY BURIAL VAULT SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STANDARD HORSE NAIL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- STD HORSE NAIL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LITTELL STEEL CO/BRIDGEWATERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SUPER MART PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FABIAN CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- JOES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PITTSFIELD GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BRADYS RUN PARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- BEAVER CNTY PUBLIC WORKS DEPT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fallston'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 Fallston.
Total Sites
774
within ~10 miles of Fallston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fallston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fallston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fallston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fallston — Toxics Release Inventory (81 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Fallston
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 Fallston average
Your land is one point inside Fallston
Everything above resolves to Fallston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Fallston Average
Fallston Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fallston
- ●One soil character for all of Fallston
- ●Frost dates read at Fallston's scale: Apr 11 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fallston's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fallston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fallston, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fallston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fallston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fallston average
How we know this about Fallston
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 Fallston’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 Fallston
When does frost risk typically end in Fallston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fallston typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Fallston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fallston 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 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fallston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fallston sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 23, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fallston?
The federal record around Fallston is a meaningful one — 774 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (399), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Fallston?
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 Fallston's scale — its 6b band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fallston'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 Fallston’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fallston's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 774 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fallston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fallston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Nov 6 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 774 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fallston, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fallston's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fallston's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fallstonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fallston's 303 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 Fallston's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fallston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Fallston-wide figureread your own land →