Jamestown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Jamestown, 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 Jamestown 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 Jamestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jamestown — the short answer
Jamestown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 400 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 400 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 Jamestown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jamestown's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jamestown
Each reading below is measured for Jamestown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJamestown runs about 180 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
MeasuredJamestown 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 Jamestown is in
Jamestown sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jamestown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Jamestown
Every plant below cleared Jamestown's own zone 6a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jamestown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Jamestown
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Jamestown, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jamestown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jamestown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 1955Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SHEETZ 49 REBUILDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- JOHNS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PORTAGE SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 49Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- KICKS NIGHT & DAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHEETZ 49 OLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PORTAGE HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CA 465Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- STAGER CHEVYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- STAGER CHEVROLETBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- STAGER WRECKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jamestown'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 Jamestown.
Total Sites
275
within ~10 miles of Jamestown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jamestown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jamestown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jamestown, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Jamestown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Jamestown
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 Jamestown average
Your land is one point inside Jamestown
Everything above resolves to Jamestown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 400 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 Jamestown Average
Jamestown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Jamestown
- ●One soil character for all of Jamestown
- ●Frost dates read at Jamestown's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jamestown's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jamestown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jamestown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jamestown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jamestown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jamestown average
How we know this about Jamestown
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 Jamestown’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 Jamestown
When does frost risk typically end in Jamestown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jamestown typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Jamestown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jamestown typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jamestown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jamestown sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 9, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jamestown?
The federal record around Jamestown is a meaningful one — 275 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Jamestown?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jamestown's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jamestown'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 Jamestown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jamestown's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 400 acres it covers and 275 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jamestown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jamestown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 23 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 275 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jamestown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jamestown's boundary and the 400 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jamestown's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jamestownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jamestown's 400 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jamestown's 400 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jamestown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 400 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Jamestown-wide figureread your own land →