Hazleton, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hazleton, 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 Hazleton 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 Hazleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hazleton — the short answer
Hazleton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Hazleton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hazleton's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hazleton
Each reading below is measured for Hazleton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHazleton runs about 198 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
MeasuredHazleton 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 Hazleton is in
Hazleton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hazleton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luzerne County.
What Grows in Hazleton
Every plant below cleared Hazleton's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hazleton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Hazleton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Hazleton, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hazleton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hazleton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONRAIL ARMOUR CO LEASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SILVER LINE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DENNYS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MINNICK AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HAZLETON MACARONI FACTORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NATL COATINGS & SUPPLIESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PIONEER FIRE STA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NELSONS SC INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CONRAIL HAZLETONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WASSIL POSTUPACK & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VERY BEST EQUIPMENT INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- UNI MART 4313Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hazleton'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 Hazleton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hazleton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hazleton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hazleton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hazleton — Toxics Release Inventory (48 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Hazleton
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 Hazleton average
Your land is one point inside Hazleton
Everything above resolves to Hazleton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Hazleton Average
Hazleton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hazleton
- ●One soil character for all of Hazleton
- ●Frost dates read at Hazleton's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hazleton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hazleton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hazleton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hazleton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hazleton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hazleton average
How we know this about Hazleton
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hazleton’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Hazleton
When does frost risk typically end in Hazleton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hazleton typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Hazleton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hazleton typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hazleton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hazleton sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 14, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hazleton?
The federal record around Hazleton runs heavier than most — 517 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (282), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hazleton?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hazleton's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hazleton'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 Hazleton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hazleton's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,822 acres it covers and 517 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hazleton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hazleton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 28 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 517 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hazleton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hazleton's boundary and the 3,822 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hazleton's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hazletonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hazleton's 3,822 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Luzerne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Luzerne 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 Luzerne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hazleton's 3,822 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hazleton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,822 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 Hazleton-wide figureread your own land →
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