Houtzdale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Houtzdale, 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 Houtzdale 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 Houtzdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Houtzdale — the short answer
Houtzdale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 245 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 245 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 Houtzdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Houtzdale's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Houtzdale
Each reading below is measured for Houtzdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoutzdale runs about 172 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
MeasuredHoutzdale 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 Houtzdale is in
Houtzdale sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Houtzdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clearfield County.
What Grows in Houtzdale
Every plant below cleared Houtzdale's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Houtzdale?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Houtzdale
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Houtzdale, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Houtzdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Houtzdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- I HILLERS SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- HOUTZDALE BORO CLEARFIELD CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- REAMS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- MOSHANNON VALLEY SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- JACOB GEORGE FORD SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BUCKWALTERS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 850 ft
- CMP HOUTZDALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SNAPPYS 8Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STARRI GAS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PROPOSED DOLLAR GEN SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- LENS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- JL WILKES SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Houtzdale'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 Houtzdale.
Total Sites
173
within ~10 miles of Houtzdale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Houtzdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Houtzdale
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Houtzdale
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 Houtzdale average
Your land is one point inside Houtzdale
Everything above resolves to Houtzdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 245 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 Houtzdale Average
Houtzdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Houtzdale
- ●One soil character for all of Houtzdale
- ●Frost dates read at Houtzdale's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Houtzdale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Houtzdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Houtzdale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Houtzdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Houtzdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Houtzdale average
How we know this about Houtzdale
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 Houtzdale’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 Houtzdale
When does frost risk typically end in Houtzdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Houtzdale typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Houtzdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Houtzdale typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Houtzdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Houtzdale sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 5, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Houtzdale?
The federal record around Houtzdale shows 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Houtzdale?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Houtzdale's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Houtzdale'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 Houtzdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Houtzdale's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 245 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Houtzdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Houtzdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 19 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Houtzdale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Houtzdale's boundary and the 245 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Houtzdale's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Houtzdalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Houtzdale's 245 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clearfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clearfield 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 Clearfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Houtzdale's 245 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Houtzdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 245 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 Houtzdale-wide figureread your own land →
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