Hughesville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Hughesville, 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 Hughesville 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 Hughesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hughesville — the short answer
Hughesville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 413 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 413 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 Hughesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hughesville's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hughesville
Each reading below is measured for Hughesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHughesville runs about 199 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
MeasuredHughesville 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 Hughesville is in
Hughesville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hughesville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lycoming County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hughesville
Every plant below cleared Hughesville's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hughesville?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Hughesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Hughesville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hughesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hughesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLTEL PA SWITCHING OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- HOME HEATING SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MANEVALS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PENN TWP GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SCULLIN OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WHIPPLES AUTO BODY SHOPBrownfields · 950 ft
- POWERFUEL AND C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GIBBS PONTIAC BUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HAROLD CORSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- J SAVOY REALTY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HESS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hughesville'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 Hughesville.
Total Sites
319
within ~10 miles of Hughesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hughesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hughesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hughesville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Hughesville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Hughesville
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 Hughesville average
Your land is one point inside Hughesville
Everything above resolves to Hughesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 413 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 Hughesville Average
Hughesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Hughesville
- ●One soil character for all of Hughesville
- ●Frost dates read at Hughesville's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hughesville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hughesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hughesville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hughesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hughesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hughesville average
How we know this about Hughesville
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 Hughesville’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 Hughesville
When does frost risk typically end in Hughesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hughesville typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Hughesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hughesville 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 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hughesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hughesville sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 14, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hughesville?
The federal record around Hughesville is a meaningful one — 319 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (144), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hughesville?
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 Hughesville's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hughesville'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 Hughesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hughesville's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 413 acres it covers and 319 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hughesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hughesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 28 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 319 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hughesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hughesville's boundary and the 413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hughesville sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hughesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hughesville's 413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lycoming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lycoming 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 Lycoming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hughesville's 413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hughesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 413 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 Hughesville-wide figureread your own land →
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