Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Marcus Hook, 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 Marcus Hook 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 Marcus Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marcus Hook — the short answer
Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 709 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 709 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 7b is Marcus Hook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marcus Hook's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marcus Hook
Each reading below is measured for Marcus Hook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarcus Hook runs about 251 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
MeasuredMarcus Hook sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Marcus Hook is in
Marcus Hook sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marcus Hook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Delaware County is mostly Northern Piedmont. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Marcus Hook
Every plant below cleared Marcus Hook's own zone 7b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marcus Hook?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Marcus Hook
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Marcus Hook, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marcus Hook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marcus Hook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARCUS HOOK TERMINALBrownfields · 800 ft
- MARCUS HOOK IND COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RIVER PLACE HOMES OF MARCUS HOOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MARCUS HOOK PUMP STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TRICO BAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TRICO RENTALS OF PENNA INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- AMOCO SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ENERGY TRANSFER MARCUS HOOK TERMINALBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ENERGY TRANSFER MARCUS HOOK TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- BP OIL REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- KMART 3953Brownfields · 2100 ft
- SOLVAY USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marcus Hook'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 Marcus Hook.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marcus Hook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marcus Hook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marcus Hook, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Marcus Hook. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Marcus Hook
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 Marcus Hook average
Your land is one point inside Marcus Hook
Everything above resolves to Marcus Hook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 709 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 Marcus Hook Average
Marcus Hook Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Marcus Hook
- ●One soil character for all of Marcus Hook
- ●Frost dates read at Marcus Hook's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marcus Hook's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marcus Hook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marcus Hook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marcus Hook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marcus Hook average
How we know this about Marcus Hook
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 Marcus Hook’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 Marcus Hook
When does frost risk typically end in Marcus Hook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marcus Hook typically lands around Mar 19, 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 Apr 9.
When is the first frost in Marcus Hook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marcus Hook typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marcus Hook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marcus Hook sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 11, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marcus Hook?
The federal record around Marcus Hook runs heavier than most — 2,727 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,235), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Marcus Hook?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marcus Hook's scale — its 7b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marcus Hook'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 Marcus Hook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marcus Hook's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 709 acres it covers and 2,727 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marcus Hook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marcus Hook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 25 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,727 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marcus Hook, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marcus Hook's boundary and the 709 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Marcus Hook sits in the Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marcus Hooklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marcus Hook's 709 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marcus Hook's 709 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marcus Hook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 709 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Marcus Hook-wide figureread your own land →
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