Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fort Loudon, 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 Loudon 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 Loudon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Loudon — the short answer
Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Loudon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Loudon's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Loudon
Each reading below is measured for Fort Loudon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Loudon runs about 213 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 Loudon 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 Loudon is in
Fort Loudon sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Loudon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Fort Loudon
Every plant below cleared Fort Loudon's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Loudon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Fort Loudon
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Fort Loudon, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Loudon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Loudon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENSINGERS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ATLAS COPCO SECOROC LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- ATLAS COPCO SECOROC LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TALHELMS GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MELLOT MFG COBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- MTN VIEW ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DIETRICHS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FU 122Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- METCALFES GARAGEBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- MCCONNELLSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- ST THOMAS VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- APX IND COATINGS INC/ST THOMASBrownfields · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Loudon'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 Loudon.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Fort Loudon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Loudon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Loudon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Loudon, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Loudon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Loudon
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 Loudon average
Your land is one point inside Fort Loudon
Everything above resolves to Fort Loudon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Loudon Average
Fort Loudon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fort Loudon
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Loudon
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Loudon's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Loudon's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Loudon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Loudon, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Loudon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Loudon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Loudon average
How we know this about Fort Loudon
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 Loudon’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 Loudon
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Loudon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Loudon typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Fort Loudon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Loudon typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Loudon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Loudon sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 21, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Loudon?
The federal record around Fort Loudon shows 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Fort Loudon?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Loudon's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Loudon'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 Loudon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Loudon's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,726 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Loudon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Loudon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 4 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Loudon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Loudon's boundary and the 2,726 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Loudon's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Loudonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Loudon's 2,726 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Loudon's 2,726 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Loudon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,726 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Loudon-wide figureread your own land →