Friesville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Friesville, 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 Friesville 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 Friesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Friesville — the short answer
Friesville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 97 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 97 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 6b is Friesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Friesville's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Friesville
Each reading below is measured for Friesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFriesville runs about 201 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
MeasuredFriesville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Friesville is in
Friesville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Friesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Friesville
Every plant below cleared Friesville's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Friesville?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Friesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Friesville, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Friesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Friesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NATL IMPRINT CORPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ZEIGLER'S CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2300 ft
- WHETSTONE MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CLAYSBURG GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HOSSS FRESH XPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MARTIN GEN STORE 202Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHAMPION HOME BUILDERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- CHAMPION HOMES BUILDERS INC ALTANTIC HOMES DIVToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CLAYSBURG KIMMEL HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRANKS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JOHNSONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PEGGYS 220 SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Friesville'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 Friesville.
Total Sites
301
within ~10 miles of Friesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Friesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Friesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Friesville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Friesville — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (98 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Friesville
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 Friesville average
Your land is one point inside Friesville
Everything above resolves to Friesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 97 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 Friesville Average
Friesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Friesville
- ●One soil character for all of Friesville
- ●Frost dates read at Friesville's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Friesville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Friesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Friesville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Friesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Friesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Friesville average
How we know this about Friesville
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 Friesville’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 Friesville
When does frost risk typically end in Friesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Friesville typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Friesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Friesville typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Friesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Friesville sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 15, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Friesville?
The federal record around Friesville is a meaningful one — 301 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Friesville?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Friesville's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Friesville'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 Friesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Friesville's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 97 acres it covers and 301 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Friesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Friesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 29 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 301 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Friesville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Friesville's boundary and the 97 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Friesville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Friesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Friesville's 97 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Friesville's 97 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Friesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 97 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Friesville-wide figureread your own land →
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