Hallstead, 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.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hallstead, 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 Hallstead 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 Hallstead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hallstead — the short answer
Hallstead, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 268 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- 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
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 268 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 Hallstead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hallstead's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hallstead
Each reading below is measured for Hallstead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHallstead runs about 174 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
MeasuredHallstead 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 Hallstead is in
Hallstead sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hallstead's own centroid rather than borrowed from Susquehanna County.
What Grows in Hallstead
Every plant below cleared Hallstead's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hallstead?
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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Hallstead
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hallstead, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hallstead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hallstead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SGL 035Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAYMOND E HACKELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HALLSTEAD FOUNDRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 8870Brownfields · 2200 ft
- NICKELS TOOL & MODEL SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PUMP N PANTRY 002Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SR 11 HALLSTEAD UST SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SQ 5Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAM MESS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MIKE CARNS FORDBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SQ 193Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- GREAT BEND TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hallstead'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 Hallstead.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hallstead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hallstead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hallstead, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Hallstead. 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 Hallstead
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 Hallstead average
Your land is one point inside Hallstead
Everything above resolves to Hallstead as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 268 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 Hallstead Average
Hallstead Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Hallstead
- ●One soil character for all of Hallstead
- ●Frost dates read at Hallstead's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hallstead's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hallstead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hallstead, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hallstead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hallstead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hallstead average
How we know this about Hallstead
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 Hallstead’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 Hallstead
When does frost risk typically end in Hallstead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hallstead typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Hallstead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hallstead 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 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hallstead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hallstead sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 6, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hallstead?
The federal record around Hallstead is a meaningful one — 231 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hallstead?
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 Hallstead's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hallstead'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 Hallstead’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hallstead's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 268 acres it covers and 231 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hallstead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hallstead's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 20 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hallstead, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hallstead's boundary and the 268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hallstead's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hallsteadlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hallstead's 268 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Susquehanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Susquehanna 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 Susquehanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hallstead's 268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hallstead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 268 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hallstead-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaHallstead sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides