Geistown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Geistown, 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 Geistown 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 Geistown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Geistown — the short answer
Geistown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 680 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 680 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 Geistown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Geistown's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Geistown
Each reading below is measured for Geistown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGeistown runs about 195 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
MeasuredGeistown 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 Geistown is in
Geistown sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Geistown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Geistown
Every plant below cleared Geistown's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Geistown?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Geistown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Geistown, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Geistown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Geistown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHEETZ 17Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- STEMS CLOVERLEAF QUICK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- KUCHERA INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- CC SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FOLLOW CHARLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOMCO AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HORNICK AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- BILLY OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GEISTOWN BORO CAMBRIA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SPEED EZUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ASHBRIDGE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FI HOFF CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Geistown'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 Geistown.
Total Sites
537
within ~10 miles of Geistown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Geistown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Geistown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Geistown, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Geistown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Geistown
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 Geistown average
Your land is one point inside Geistown
Everything above resolves to Geistown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 680 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 Geistown Average
Geistown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Geistown
- ●One soil character for all of Geistown
- ●Frost dates read at Geistown's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Geistown's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Geistown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Geistown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Geistown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Geistown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Geistown average
How we know this about Geistown
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 Geistown’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 Geistown
When does frost risk typically end in Geistown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Geistown typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Geistown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Geistown typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Geistown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Geistown sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 16, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Geistown?
The federal record around Geistown is a meaningful one — 537 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Geistown?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Geistown's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Geistown'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 Geistown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Geistown's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 680 acres it covers and 537 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Geistown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Geistown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 30 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 537 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Geistown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Geistown's boundary and the 680 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Geistown's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Geistownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Geistown's 680 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Geistown's 680 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Geistown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 680 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Geistown-wide figureread your own land →
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