Loop, 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 Loop, 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 Loop 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 Loop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loop — the short answer
Loop, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Loop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loop's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loop
Each reading below is measured for Loop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoop 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
MeasuredLoop 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 Loop is in
Loop sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Loop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Loop
Every plant below cleared Loop'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 Loop?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Loop
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Loop, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Loop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CURRY SUPPLY COBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- HOLLIDAYSBURG BORO YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PENN TURF, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- WATCO MECH SVC RAILCAR REPAIRToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- WATCO MECH SVC RAILCAR REPAIRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- RENTAL PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CANOE CREEK STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHEETZ STORE NO 3Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- SHEETZ 3 RUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SHEETZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BLAIR STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HOLLIDAYSBURG CAR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loop'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 Loop.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loop
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Loop
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 Loop average
Your land is one point inside Loop
Everything above resolves to Loop as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Loop Average
Loop Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Loop
- ●One soil character for all of Loop
- ●Frost dates read at Loop's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loop's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loop, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loop average
How we know this about Loop
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 Loop’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 Loop
When does frost risk typically end in Loop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loop typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Loop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loop typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loop sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 16, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loop?
The federal record around Loop is a meaningful one — 628 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (317), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Loop?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loop's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loop'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 Loop’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Loop's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,166 acres it covers and 628 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loop's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 30 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 628 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loop, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loop's boundary and the 1,166 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 Loop's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Looplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loop's 1,166 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loop's 1,166 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,166 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Loop-wide figureread your own land →
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