Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Indiantown Gap, 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 Fort Indiantown Gap 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 Fort Indiantown Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Indiantown Gap — the short answer
Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 7a is Fort Indiantown Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Indiantown Gap's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Indiantown Gap
Each reading below is measured for Fort Indiantown Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Indiantown Gap runs about 210 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
MeasuredFort Indiantown Gap sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Fort Indiantown Gap is in
Fort Indiantown Gap sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Indiantown Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lebanon County.
What Grows in Fort Indiantown Gap
Every plant below cleared Fort Indiantown Gap's own zone 7a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Indiantown Gap?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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 Fort Indiantown Gap
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Fort Indiantown Gap, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Indiantown Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Indiantown Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD - UTESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PA DMVA STATE GARAGE SMALL ENGINE SHOP FT INDIANTOWN GAPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- LB 1059Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD FORT INDIANTOWN GAPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD FORT INDIANTOWN GAPToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- US ARMY NATIONAL GUARD FORT INDIANTOWN GAPSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- FUNCKS MINI MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MEASE MOTORSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- WEILER FARMS 3CAFO · 1.7 mi
- LB 721Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- LB 1057Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- US PA AIR NATL GUARD AIR STABrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Indiantown Gap'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 Fort Indiantown Gap.
Total Sites
503
within ~10 miles of Fort Indiantown Gap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Indiantown Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Indiantown Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Indiantown Gap, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Indiantown Gap — CAFO (25 sites) and Nitrate (180 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fort Indiantown Gap
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 Fort Indiantown Gap average
Your land is one point inside Fort Indiantown Gap
Everything above resolves to Fort Indiantown Gap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Fort Indiantown Gap Average
Fort Indiantown Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fort Indiantown Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Indiantown Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Indiantown Gap's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Indiantown Gap's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Indiantown Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Indiantown Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Indiantown Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Indiantown Gap average
How we know this about Fort Indiantown Gap
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 Fort Indiantown Gap’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 Fort Indiantown Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Indiantown Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Indiantown Gap typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Fort Indiantown Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Indiantown Gap 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 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Indiantown Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Indiantown Gap sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 19, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Indiantown Gap?
The federal record around Fort Indiantown Gap is a meaningful one — 503 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (194), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Fort Indiantown Gap?
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 Fort Indiantown Gap's scale — its 7a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Indiantown Gap'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 Fort Indiantown Gap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Indiantown Gap's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,308 acres it covers and 503 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Indiantown Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Indiantown Gap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 2 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 503 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Indiantown Gap, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Indiantown Gap's boundary and the 12,308 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Indiantown Gap's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Indiantown Gaplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Indiantown Gap's 12,308 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lebanon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lebanon 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 Lebanon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Indiantown Gap's 12,308 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Indiantown Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,308 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Fort Indiantown Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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