Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mahanoy City, 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 Mahanoy City 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 Mahanoy City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mahanoy City — the short answer
Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 326 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 326 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 Mahanoy City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mahanoy City's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mahanoy City
Each reading below is measured for Mahanoy City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMahanoy City runs about 195 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
MeasuredMahanoy City 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 Mahanoy City is in
Mahanoy City sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mahanoy City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Mahanoy City
Every plant below cleared Mahanoy City's own zone 6b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mahanoy City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Mahanoy City
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Mahanoy City, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mahanoy City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mahanoy City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWNE CLEANERSBrownfields · 300 ft
- DOLORES WAGNER PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- COCOA HUT 100Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- READING ANTHRACITE CO MAPLE HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MAHANOY ELDERLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MAHANOY AREA SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 11303Brownfields · 1400 ft
- MAHANOY TWP AUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITIZENS STEAM FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MAHANOY CITY BORO PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VGV FOODMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JIMS BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mahanoy City'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 Mahanoy City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mahanoy City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mahanoy City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mahanoy City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mahanoy City — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (36 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mahanoy City
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 Mahanoy City average
Your land is one point inside Mahanoy City
Everything above resolves to Mahanoy City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 326 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 Mahanoy City Average
Mahanoy City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mahanoy City
- ●One soil character for all of Mahanoy City
- ●Frost dates read at Mahanoy City's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mahanoy City's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mahanoy City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mahanoy City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mahanoy City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mahanoy City average
How we know this about Mahanoy City
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 Mahanoy City’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 Mahanoy City
When does frost risk typically end in Mahanoy City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mahanoy City typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Mahanoy City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mahanoy City typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mahanoy City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mahanoy City sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 13, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mahanoy City?
The federal record around Mahanoy City runs heavier than most — 434 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (248), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mahanoy City?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mahanoy City's scale — its 6b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mahanoy City'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 Mahanoy City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mahanoy City's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 326 acres it covers and 434 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mahanoy City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mahanoy City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 27 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 434 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mahanoy City, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mahanoy City's boundary and the 326 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mahanoy City's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mahanoy Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mahanoy City's 326 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mahanoy City's 326 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mahanoy City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 326 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mahanoy City-wide figureread your own land →
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