Hookstown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Hookstown, 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 Hookstown 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 Hookstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hookstown — the short answer
Hookstown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 222 days between hard freezes, across 86 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~222
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 86 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 Hookstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hookstown's 222-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hookstown
Each reading below is measured for Hookstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHookstown runs about 222 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
MeasuredHookstown 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 Hookstown is in
Hookstown sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hookstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Beaver County.
What Grows in Hookstown
Every plant below cleared Hookstown's own zone 6b and its 222-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hookstown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Hookstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hookstown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hookstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hookstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICHS AUTO SVCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MUNI GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SOUTHSIDE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BEALL & NAIRN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- LAUGHLINS FAMILY RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- JACKS DINERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BV 221Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- BV 220Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- STEWART AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- STATE LINE SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- STATE LINE SALESBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- BV 219Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hookstown'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 Hookstown.
Total Sites
399
within ~10 miles of Hookstown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hookstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hookstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hookstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hookstown — PFAS (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (37 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hookstown
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 Hookstown average
Your land is one point inside Hookstown
Everything above resolves to Hookstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 86 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 Hookstown Average
Hookstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hookstown
- ●One soil character for all of Hookstown
- ●Frost dates read at Hookstown's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hookstown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hookstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hookstown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hookstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hookstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hookstown average
How we know this about Hookstown
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 Hookstown’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 Hookstown
When does frost risk typically end in Hookstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hookstown typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Hookstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hookstown typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 222 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hookstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hookstown sees about 222 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 28, about 187 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hookstown?
The federal record around Hookstown is a meaningful one — 399 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), 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 Hookstown?
From about Oct 12 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 Nov 11 (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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hookstown's scale — its 6b band and its 222-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hookstown'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 Hookstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hookstown's own scale — its own ~222-day season between 28°F freezes, the 86 acres it covers and 399 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hookstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hookstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 11 and the ~222-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 399 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hookstown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hookstown's boundary and the 86 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~222-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hookstown's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hookstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hookstown's 86 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Beaver County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Beaver 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 Beaver County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hookstown's 86 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hookstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 86 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 Hookstown-wide figureread your own land →