Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Jim Thorpe, 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 Jim Thorpe 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 Jim Thorpe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jim Thorpe — the short answer
Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Jim Thorpe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jim Thorpe's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jim Thorpe
Each reading below is measured for Jim Thorpe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJim Thorpe 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
MeasuredJim Thorpe 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 Jim Thorpe is in
Jim Thorpe sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jim Thorpe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Jim Thorpe
Every plant below cleared Jim Thorpe's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jim Thorpe?
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 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 27 — 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 Jim Thorpe
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Jim Thorpe, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Jim Thorpe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jim Thorpe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CB 335Nitrate · 950 ft
- MAUCH CHUNK LAKE PARK OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- EXXON RS 2 1247Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NYC TRADERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NESQUEHONING SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TURKEY HILL 101Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1325Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- JIM THORPE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TURKEY HILL 87Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NESQUEHONING BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KATTNER COAL & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FRANK ARIETA PLUMBING & HEATING FUEL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jim Thorpe'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 Jim Thorpe.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jim Thorpe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jim Thorpe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jim Thorpe, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jim Thorpe — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (190 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Jim Thorpe
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 Jim Thorpe average
Your land is one point inside Jim Thorpe
Everything above resolves to Jim Thorpe as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Jim Thorpe Average
Jim Thorpe Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Jim Thorpe
- ●One soil character for all of Jim Thorpe
- ●Frost dates read at Jim Thorpe's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jim Thorpe's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jim Thorpe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jim Thorpe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jim Thorpe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jim Thorpe average
How we know this about Jim Thorpe
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 Jim Thorpe’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 Jim Thorpe
When does frost risk typically end in Jim Thorpe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jim Thorpe 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 Jim Thorpe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jim Thorpe typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jim Thorpe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jim Thorpe sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jim Thorpe?
The federal record around Jim Thorpe is a meaningful one — 288 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (190), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Jim Thorpe?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jim Thorpe's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jim Thorpe'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 Jim Thorpe’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Jim Thorpe's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,343 acres it covers and 288 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jim Thorpe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jim Thorpe's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 288 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jim Thorpe, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jim Thorpe's boundary and the 9,343 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jim Thorpe's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Jim Thorpelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jim Thorpe's 9,343 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jim Thorpe's 9,343 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jim Thorpe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,343 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Jim Thorpe-wide figureread your own land →