Farrell, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Farrell, 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 Farrell 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 Farrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farrell — the short answer
Farrell, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6a is Farrell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farrell's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farrell
Each reading below is measured for Farrell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarrell runs about 198 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
MeasuredFarrell sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Farrell is in
Farrell sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farrell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Farrell
Every plant below cleared Farrell's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farrell?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Farrell
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Farrell, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Farrell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farrell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHARON STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- HILLCREST CLEANERSBrownfields · 550 ft
- RICK HARAKALS CAR COBrownfields · 900 ft
- GERALD ASHTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BURICH SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FORMER CLARK STORE 1847Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FARRELL CITY BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- IVANS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- NLMK PENNSYLVANIA LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NLMK PENNSYLVANIA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- WHEATON & SONS CLNR/FARRELLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SHARON METAL FENCE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farrell'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 Farrell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farrell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farrell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farrell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farrell — Toxics Release Inventory (48 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Farrell
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 Farrell average
Your land is one point inside Farrell
Everything above resolves to Farrell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Farrell Average
Farrell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Farrell
- ●One soil character for all of Farrell
- ●Frost dates read at Farrell's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farrell's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farrell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farrell, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farrell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farrell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farrell average
How we know this about Farrell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Farrell’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Farrell
When does frost risk typically end in Farrell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farrell typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Farrell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farrell 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 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farrell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farrell sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 19, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farrell?
The federal record around Farrell runs heavier than most — 607 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (292), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Farrell?
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 Farrell's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farrell'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 Farrell’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Farrell's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,449 acres it covers and 607 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farrell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farrell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Nov 2 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 607 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farrell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farrell's boundary and the 1,449 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farrell's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Farrelllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Farrell's 1,449 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farrell's 1,449 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farrell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,449 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 Farrell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaFarrell sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides