Jackson Center, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jackson Center, 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 Jackson Center 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 Jackson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jackson Center — the short answer
Jackson Center, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 728 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 728 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 Jackson Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jackson Center's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jackson Center
Each reading below is measured for Jackson Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJackson Center runs about 197 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
MeasuredJackson Center 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 Jackson Center is in
Jackson Center sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jackson Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mercer County.
What Grows in Jackson Center
Every plant below cleared Jackson Center's own zone 6a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jackson Center?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Jackson Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Jackson Center, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jackson Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jackson Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR 2277Nitrate · 600 ft
- JACKSON TWP MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FOSTER GRADINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JIFFY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BARNS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WOLF CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MCDOWELL FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ADESA PITTSBURGH AUTO AUCTIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- INTERSTATE AUTO AUCTION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WILLOWBROOK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MR 2084Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- MR 722Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jackson Center'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 Jackson Center.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jackson Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jackson Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jackson Center, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of Jackson Center. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jackson Center
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 Jackson Center average
Your land is one point inside Jackson Center
Everything above resolves to Jackson Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 728 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 Jackson Center Average
Jackson Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Jackson Center
- ●One soil character for all of Jackson Center
- ●Frost dates read at Jackson Center's scale: Apr 19 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jackson Center's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jackson Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jackson Center, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jackson Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jackson Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jackson Center average
How we know this about Jackson Center
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 Jackson Center’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 Jackson Center
When does frost risk typically end in Jackson Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Center typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Jackson Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson Center typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jackson Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jackson Center sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 19, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jackson Center?
The federal record around Jackson Center is a meaningful one — 328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Jackson Center?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jackson Center's scale — its 6a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jackson Center'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 Jackson Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jackson Center's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 728 acres it covers and 328 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jackson Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jackson Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Nov 2 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jackson Center, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jackson Center's boundary and the 728 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jackson Center's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jackson Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jackson Center's 728 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mercer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mercer 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 Mercer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jackson Center's 728 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jackson Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 728 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Jackson Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaJackson Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides