Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Huntingdon, 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 Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Huntingdon — the short answer
Huntingdon, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Huntingdon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Huntingdon's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Huntingdon
Each reading below is measured for Huntingdon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHuntingdon 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
MeasuredHuntingdon sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Huntingdon is in
Huntingdon sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Huntingdon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huntingdon County.
What Grows in Huntingdon
Every plant below cleared Huntingdon's own zone 7a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Huntingdon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 29 — 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 Huntingdon
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Huntingdon, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Huntingdon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Huntingdon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JC BLAIR MEM HOSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 15TH STREET UNITED METH CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHEETZ 10Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JUNIATA COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- JUNIATA COLL PHYSICAL PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 10Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WILLIAM SMITH ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HUNTINGDON BORO HUNTINGDON CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BARRYS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UGI UTILITIES INC HUNTNGDONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ROBERT M ROSSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Huntingdon'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 Huntingdon.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Huntingdon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Huntingdon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Huntingdon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Huntingdon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Huntingdon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Huntingdon
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 Huntingdon average
Your land is one point inside Huntingdon
Everything above resolves to Huntingdon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Huntingdon Average
Huntingdon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Huntingdon
- ●One soil character for all of Huntingdon
- ●Frost dates read at Huntingdon's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Huntingdon's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Huntingdon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Huntingdon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Huntingdon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Huntingdon average
How we know this about Huntingdon
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 Huntingdon’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 Huntingdon
When does frost risk typically end in Huntingdon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Huntingdon typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Huntingdon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Huntingdon sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Huntingdon?
The federal record around Huntingdon shows 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Huntingdon?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Huntingdon's scale — its 7a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Huntingdon'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 Huntingdon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Huntingdon's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,315 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Huntingdon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Huntingdon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Huntingdon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Huntingdon's boundary and the 2,315 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Huntingdon's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Huntingdonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Huntingdon's 2,315 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntingdon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Huntingdon's 2,315 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Huntingdon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,315 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 Huntingdon-wide figureread your own land →
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