Hughestown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hughestown, 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 Hughestown 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 Hughestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hughestown — the short answer
Hughestown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 557 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 557 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 Hughestown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hughestown's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hughestown
Each reading below is measured for Hughestown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHughestown runs about 213 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
MeasuredHughestown 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 Hughestown is in
Hughestown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hughestown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luzerne County.
What Grows in Hughestown
Every plant below cleared Hughestown's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hughestown?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Hughestown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hughestown, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hughestown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hughestown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HEALEY WELDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KMART 7142Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- VIOLA DEFAZIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- K MART 7142Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DARLING DELAWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATWELL, CHARLES DBA PORKYS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PITTSTON SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PITTSTON CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- R & M COLLISION SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JOHNS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUNOCO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GALLIS SALES & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hughestown'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 Hughestown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hughestown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hughestown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hughestown, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 789 sites within ~10 miles of Hughestown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hughestown
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 Hughestown average
Your land is one point inside Hughestown
Everything above resolves to Hughestown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 557 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 Hughestown Average
Hughestown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hughestown
- ●One soil character for all of Hughestown
- ●Frost dates read at Hughestown's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hughestown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hughestown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hughestown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hughestown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hughestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hughestown average
How we know this about Hughestown
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 Hughestown’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 Hughestown
When does frost risk typically end in Hughestown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hughestown typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Hughestown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hughestown typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hughestown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hughestown sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 22, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hughestown?
The federal record around Hughestown runs heavier than most — 1,280 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (789), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hughestown?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hughestown's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hughestown'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 Hughestown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hughestown's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 557 acres it covers and 1,280 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hughestown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hughestown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 5 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,280 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hughestown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hughestown's boundary and the 557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hughestown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hughestownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hughestown's 557 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 Hughestown's 557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hughestown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hughestown-wide figureread your own land →
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