Mahaffey, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mahaffey, 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 Mahaffey 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 Mahaffey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mahaffey — the short answer
Mahaffey, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 274 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 274 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 Mahaffey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mahaffey's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mahaffey
Each reading below is measured for Mahaffey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMahaffey runs about 184 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
MeasuredMahaffey 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 Mahaffey is in
Mahaffey sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mahaffey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clearfield County.
What Grows in Mahaffey
Every plant below cleared Mahaffey's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mahaffey?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Mahaffey
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Mahaffey, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mahaffey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mahaffey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOWSER LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MAHAFFEY FUEL & SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 10765Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- KUNTZ MOTOR COBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BYERS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KUNTZ MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CF 200Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- ROY MILLER LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DIMMICKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MICHAEL AUTO BODYBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- FRY BROS FUEL DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- BURNSIDE HANDI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mahaffey'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 Mahaffey.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Mahaffey
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mahaffey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mahaffey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mahaffey, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Mahaffey. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mahaffey
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 Mahaffey average
Your land is one point inside Mahaffey
Everything above resolves to Mahaffey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 274 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 Mahaffey Average
Mahaffey Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mahaffey
- ●One soil character for all of Mahaffey
- ●Frost dates read at Mahaffey's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mahaffey's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mahaffey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mahaffey, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mahaffey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mahaffey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mahaffey average
How we know this about Mahaffey
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 Mahaffey’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 Mahaffey
When does frost risk typically end in Mahaffey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mahaffey typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Mahaffey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mahaffey typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mahaffey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mahaffey sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 11, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mahaffey?
The federal record around Mahaffey shows 139 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mahaffey?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mahaffey's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mahaffey'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 Mahaffey’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mahaffey's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 274 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mahaffey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mahaffey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 25 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mahaffey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mahaffey's boundary and the 274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mahaffey's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mahaffeylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mahaffey's 274 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clearfield County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clearfield 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 Clearfield County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mahaffey's 274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mahaffey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 274 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 Mahaffey-wide figureread your own land →
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