Laboratory, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Laboratory, 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 Laboratory 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 Laboratory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Laboratory — the short answer
Laboratory, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 500 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 500 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 Laboratory's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laboratory's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laboratory
Each reading below is measured for Laboratory itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLaboratory runs about 202 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
MeasuredLaboratory 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 Laboratory is in
Laboratory sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laboratory's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Laboratory
Every plant below cleared Laboratory's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laboratory?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Laboratory
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Laboratory, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Laboratory
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laboratory. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PANCAKE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WS 130Nitrate · 1600 ft
- MARCHAND AUTO SVC INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- ROUTE 40 AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JERRYS AMOCOBrownfields · 2300 ft
- JERRYS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RICHARD SHRONTZ INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANS REDD FARM COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ARC AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WASHINGTON ROTATING CTLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CITY MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KWIK FILL S 79Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laboratory'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 Laboratory.
Total Sites
559
within ~10 miles of Laboratory
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laboratory
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laboratory
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Laboratory
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 Laboratory average
Your land is one point inside Laboratory
Everything above resolves to Laboratory as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 500 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 Laboratory Average
Laboratory Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Laboratory
- ●One soil character for all of Laboratory
- ●Frost dates read at Laboratory's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laboratory's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laboratory
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laboratory, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laboratory averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laboratory — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laboratory average
How we know this about Laboratory
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 Laboratory’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 Laboratory
When does frost risk typically end in Laboratory?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laboratory typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Laboratory?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laboratory typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laboratory?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laboratory sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 14, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laboratory?
The federal record around Laboratory is a meaningful one — 559 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (258), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Laboratory?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Laboratory's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laboratory'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 Laboratory’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Laboratory's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 500 acres it covers and 559 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laboratory's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Laboratory's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 28 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 559 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laboratory, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laboratory's boundary and the 500 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laboratory's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Laboratorylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laboratory's 500 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laboratory's 500 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laboratory you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 500 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 Laboratory-wide figureread your own land →
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