Long Branch, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Long Branch, 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 Long Branch 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 Long Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Long Branch — the short answer
Long Branch, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Long Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Long Branch's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Long Branch
Each reading below is measured for Long Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLong Branch runs about 214 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
MeasuredLong Branch 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 Long Branch is in
Long Branch sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Long Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Long Branch
Every plant below cleared Long Branch's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Long Branch?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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 Long Branch
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Long Branch, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Long Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Long Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REGLUATOR STATION 964 HIGH ROAD 700595Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- J T AUTO & CYCLE REPAIRSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GRILLOS AUTOMOTIVE SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AUTH OF BORO OF CHARLEROIPFAS · 1.4 mi
- HENWIL CORPBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HENWIL CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- AMER NATURAL 7Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HENWILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NEO SOLUTIONS INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- EXXON RAS NO 26881Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- PUMP STA 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BRAUNS HOSTESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Long Branch'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 Long Branch.
Total Sites
542
within ~10 miles of Long Branch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Long Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Long Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Long Branch, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Long Branch. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Long Branch
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 Long Branch average
Your land is one point inside Long Branch
Everything above resolves to Long Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Long Branch Average
Long Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Long Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Long Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Long Branch's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Long Branch's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Long Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Long Branch, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Long Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Long Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Long Branch average
How we know this about Long Branch
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 Long Branch’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 Long Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Long Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Long Branch typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Long Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Long Branch 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 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Long Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Long Branch sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 23, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Long Branch?
The federal record around Long Branch is a meaningful one — 542 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (309), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Long Branch?
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 Long Branch's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Long Branch'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 Long Branch’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Long Branch's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,042 acres it covers and 542 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Long Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Long Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 6 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 542 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Long Branch, the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Long Branch's boundary and the 2,042 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Long Branch's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Long Branchlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Long Branch's 2,042 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 Long Branch's 2,042 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Long Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,042 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Long Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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