Hartleton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hartleton, 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 Hartleton 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 Hartleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hartleton — the short answer
Hartleton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 581 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 581 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 Hartleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hartleton's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hartleton
Each reading below is measured for Hartleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHartleton runs about 194 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
MeasuredHartleton 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 Hartleton is in
Hartleton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hartleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Hartleton
Every plant below cleared Hartleton's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hartleton?
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 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Hartleton
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Hartleton, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hartleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hartleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MITCHELLS SVC & AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HARVEYS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CHRISTS LUTH CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- UN 173Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- QUICK SHOP 11Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LAURELTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HARTLEY TWP SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- 18TH CENTURY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- UN 175Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BOOPS FAMILY HOG FARMCAFO · 3.0 mi
- UN 108Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- UN 208Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hartleton'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 Hartleton.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Hartleton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hartleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hartleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hartleton, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Hartleton. 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 Hartleton
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 Hartleton average
Your land is one point inside Hartleton
Everything above resolves to Hartleton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 581 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 Hartleton Average
Hartleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hartleton
- ●One soil character for all of Hartleton
- ●Frost dates read at Hartleton's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hartleton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hartleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hartleton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hartleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hartleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hartleton average
How we know this about Hartleton
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 Hartleton’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 Hartleton
When does frost risk typically end in Hartleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hartleton 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 Hartleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hartleton 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hartleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hartleton sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hartleton?
The federal record around Hartleton is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hartleton?
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 Hartleton's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hartleton'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 Hartleton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hartleton's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 581 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hartleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hartleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hartleton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hartleton's boundary and the 581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hartleton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hartletonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hartleton's 581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hartleton's 581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hartleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 581 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hartleton-wide figureread your own land →
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