Mainesburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mainesburg, 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 Mainesburg 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 Mainesburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mainesburg — the short answer
Mainesburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 244 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 244 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 Mainesburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mainesburg's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mainesburg
Each reading below is measured for Mainesburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMainesburg runs about 172 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
MeasuredMainesburg 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 Mainesburg is in
Mainesburg sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mainesburg's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tioga County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mainesburg
Every plant below cleared Mainesburg's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mainesburg?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Mainesburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mainesburg, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mainesburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mainesburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TI 246Nitrate · 2400 ft
- SULLIVAN TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TI 454Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SULLIVAN FARMSCAFO · 1.3 mi
- SULLIVAN FARMS CAFO OPERATIONCAFO · 1.5 mi
- TI 242Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- NORTH PENN TELE COBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- JAMES BARRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ANNS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CROSS EXCAVUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ROSEVILLE MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- TOWN & COUNTRY CLNR/S MAIN ST PLTBrownfields · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mainesburg'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 Mainesburg.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Mainesburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mainesburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mainesburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mainesburg, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mainesburg — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mainesburg
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 Mainesburg average
Your land is one point inside Mainesburg
Everything above resolves to Mainesburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 244 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 Mainesburg Average
Mainesburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mainesburg
- ●One soil character for all of Mainesburg
- ●Frost dates read at Mainesburg's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mainesburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mainesburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mainesburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mainesburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mainesburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mainesburg average
How we know this about Mainesburg
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 Mainesburg’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 Mainesburg
When does frost risk typically end in Mainesburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mainesburg typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Mainesburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mainesburg typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mainesburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mainesburg sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 3, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mainesburg?
The federal record around Mainesburg shows 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Mainesburg?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mainesburg's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mainesburg'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 Mainesburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mainesburg's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 244 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mainesburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mainesburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 17 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mainesburg, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mainesburg's boundary and the 244 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mainesburg sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mainesburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mainesburg's 244 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tioga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tioga 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 Tioga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mainesburg's 244 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mainesburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 244 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Mainesburg-wide figureread your own land →