Forksville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Forksville, 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 Forksville 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 Forksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Forksville — the short answer
Forksville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Forksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Forksville's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Forksville
Each reading below is measured for Forksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredForksville runs about 180 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
MeasuredForksville 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 Forksville is in
Forksville sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Forksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Forksville
Every plant below cleared Forksville's own zone 6a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Forksville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Forksville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Forksville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Forksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Forksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BETWEEN BRIDGESUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SPEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FORKSVILLE GEN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FORKSVILLE LUMBER & VENEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MILL STREAM DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SULLIVAN RURAL ELECUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SU 34 Sullivan County Observation WellNitrate · 1.4 mi
- L & H LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- EBS COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DENNIS MCCARTY PALLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- RAYDEN & SHARON PARRISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SNYDERS GEN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Forksville'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 Forksville.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Forksville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Forksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Forksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Forksville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Forksville. 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 Forksville
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 Forksville average
Your land is one point inside Forksville
Everything above resolves to Forksville 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 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 Forksville Average
Forksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Forksville
- ●One soil character for all of Forksville
- ●Frost dates read at Forksville's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Forksville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Forksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Forksville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Forksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Forksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Forksville average
How we know this about Forksville
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 Forksville’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 Forksville
When does frost risk typically end in Forksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Forksville typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Forksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Forksville typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Forksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Forksville sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 6, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Forksville?
The federal record around Forksville shows 80 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Forksville?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Forksville's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Forksville'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 Forksville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Forksville's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,007 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Forksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Forksville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 20 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Forksville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Forksville's boundary and the 1,007 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Forksville's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Forksvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Forksville's 1,007 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Forksville's 1,007 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Forksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,007 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Forksville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides