Force, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Force, 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 Force 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 Force — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Force — the short answer
Force, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 136 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 136 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 Force's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Force's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Force
Each reading below is measured for Force itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForce runs about 179 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
MeasuredForce 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 Force is in
Force sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Force's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elk County.
What Grows in Force
Every plant below cleared Force's own zone 6a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Force?
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 Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Force
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Force, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Force
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Force. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FENICE GARAGEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FORCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VALLEY FARM MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 9304Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- JAY TWP ELK CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- GLASSMERE FUEL SVC BULK PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FORCE GARAGEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- FRIDAY GAS & OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CATALDOS COLLISION SVCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TYLER MEASURING & REGULATING STATIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- DENNYS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PARKER DAM STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Force'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 Force.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Force
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Force
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Force
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Force, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Force. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Force
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 Force average
Your land is one point inside Force
Everything above resolves to Force as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 136 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 Force Average
Force Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Force
- ●One soil character for all of Force
- ●Frost dates read at Force's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Force's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Force
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Force, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Force averages can't show:
We read public map data around Force — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Force average
How we know this about Force
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 Force’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 Force
When does frost risk typically end in Force?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Force typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Force?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Force typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Force?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Force sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 10, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Force?
The federal record around Force shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Force?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Force's scale — its 6a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Force'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 Force’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Force's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 136 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Force's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Force's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 24 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Force, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Force's boundary and the 136 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Force's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forcelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Force's 136 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elk 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 Elk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Force's 136 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Force you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 136 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Force-wide figureread your own land →
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