Marienville, 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.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marienville, 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 Marienville 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 Marienville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marienville — the short answer
Marienville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Marienville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marienville's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marienville
Each reading below is measured for Marienville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarienville runs about 167 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
MeasuredMarienville 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 Marienville is in
Marienville sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Marienville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Forest County.
What Grows in Marienville
Every plant below cleared Marienville's own zone 6a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marienville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Marienville
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Marienville, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marienville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marienville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARDWARE DESIGNERS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- MARIENVILLE QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ABRAXAS FOUNDATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NATL FOREST PRODBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ANCHOR GLASS CONTAINERBrownfields · 2200 ft
- PA GAME COMMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EAST FOREST SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GATEWAY FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARIENVILLE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KWIK FILL M0391 M391Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- KWIK FILL M391Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MARIENVILLE RANGER STABrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marienville'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 Marienville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marienville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marienville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marienville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Marienville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Marienville
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 Marienville average
Your land is one point inside Marienville
Everything above resolves to Marienville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Marienville Average
Marienville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marienville
- ●One soil character for all of Marienville
- ●Frost dates read at Marienville's scale: May 4 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marienville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marienville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marienville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marienville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marienville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marienville average
How we know this about Marienville
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 Marienville’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 Marienville
When does frost risk typically end in Marienville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marienville typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Marienville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marienville typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marienville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marienville sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 4, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marienville?
The federal record around Marienville shows 35 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Brownfields 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 Marienville?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marienville's scale — its 6a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marienville'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 Marienville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marienville's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,878 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marienville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marienville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 18 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marienville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marienville's boundary and the 3,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marienville's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marienvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marienville's 3,878 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Forest County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Forest 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 Forest County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marienville's 3,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marienville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,878 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 Marienville-wide figureread your own land →
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