Kerrtown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Kerrtown, 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 Kerrtown 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 Kerrtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kerrtown — the short answer
Kerrtown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 564 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 564 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 Kerrtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kerrtown's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kerrtown
Each reading below is measured for Kerrtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKerrtown runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKerrtown 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 Kerrtown is in
Kerrtown sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kerrtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Kerrtown
Every plant below cleared Kerrtown's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kerrtown?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Kerrtown
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Kerrtown, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Kerrtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kerrtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHANNELLOCK PLT 2Brownfields · 1400 ft
- CHANNELLOCK PLT 2Toxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- AINSWORTH PET NUTRITIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- POST CONSUMER BRANDS MEADVILLEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- POST CONSUMER BRANDS MEADVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- ADVANCED CAST PRODUCTS/MEADVILLEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ADVANCED CAST PRODUCTS/MEADVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- ADVANCED CAST PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- COUNTRY FAIR 30Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ALS MELONS FARM MKT & GREENHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 153Brownfields · 2200 ft
- SHEETZ 153Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kerrtown'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 Kerrtown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kerrtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kerrtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kerrtown, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Kerrtown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kerrtown
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 Kerrtown average
Your land is one point inside Kerrtown
Everything above resolves to Kerrtown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 564 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 Kerrtown Average
Kerrtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Kerrtown
- ●One soil character for all of Kerrtown
- ●Frost dates read at Kerrtown's scale: Apr 20 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kerrtown's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kerrtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kerrtown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kerrtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kerrtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kerrtown average
How we know this about Kerrtown
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 Kerrtown’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 Kerrtown
When does frost risk typically end in Kerrtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kerrtown typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Kerrtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kerrtown typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kerrtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kerrtown sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 23, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kerrtown?
The federal record around Kerrtown is a meaningful one — 343 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (156), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kerrtown?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kerrtown's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kerrtown'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 Kerrtown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kerrtown's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 564 acres it covers and 343 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kerrtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kerrtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Nov 6 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 343 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kerrtown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kerrtown's boundary and the 564 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kerrtown's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Kerrtownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kerrtown's 564 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kerrtown's 564 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kerrtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 564 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Kerrtown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaKerrtown sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides