Loretto, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Loretto, 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 Loretto 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 Loretto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Loretto — the short answer
Loretto, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 604 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 604 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 Loretto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loretto's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loretto
Each reading below is measured for Loretto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoretto runs about 175 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
MeasuredLoretto 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 Loretto is in
Loretto sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Loretto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in Loretto
Every plant below cleared Loretto's own zone 6a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loretto?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Loretto
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Loretto, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Loretto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loretto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITHMYERS SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- MUNSTER TWP CAMBRIA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FED CORR INSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FEDERAL CORRECTIONS INSTITUTE FCI LORETTOBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ST MICHAIL CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ST FRANCIS UNIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SAINT FRANCIS UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- CA 210Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- CA 233Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- VALE WOOD FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CA 63Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- STORM FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loretto'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 Loretto.
Total Sites
287
within ~10 miles of Loretto
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loretto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loretto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loretto, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Loretto. 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 Loretto
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 Loretto average
Your land is one point inside Loretto
Everything above resolves to Loretto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 604 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 Loretto Average
Loretto Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Loretto
- ●One soil character for all of Loretto
- ●Frost dates read at Loretto's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loretto's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loretto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loretto, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loretto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loretto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loretto average
How we know this about Loretto
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 Loretto’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 Loretto
When does frost risk typically end in Loretto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loretto typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Loretto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loretto typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loretto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loretto sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 7, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loretto?
The federal record around Loretto is a meaningful one — 287 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (161), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Loretto?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loretto's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loretto'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 Loretto’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Loretto's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 604 acres it covers and 287 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loretto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loretto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 21 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 287 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loretto, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loretto's boundary and the 604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loretto's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lorettolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loretto's 604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loretto's 604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loretto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 604 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Loretto-wide figureread your own land →