Marion Center, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Marion Center, 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 Marion Center 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 Marion Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marion Center — the short answer
Marion Center, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 476 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 476 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 Marion Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marion Center's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marion Center
Each reading below is measured for Marion Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarion Center runs about 190 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
MeasuredMarion Center 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 Marion Center is in
Marion Center sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Marion Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Indiana County.
What Grows in Marion Center
Every plant below cleared Marion Center's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marion Center?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Marion Center
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Marion Center, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Marion Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marion Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARION CENTER AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MARION CENTER FIRE HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MARION CTR SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- E & L GAS DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- THOMAS H LOUGHRY TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DAUGHERTYS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JESSIE A NASTASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GRANT TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EAST MAHONING TWP INDIANA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MOORES SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TANOMA ENTERPRISES OFC BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FULLINGTON BUS MARION CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marion Center'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 Marion Center.
Total Sites
276
within ~10 miles of Marion Center
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marion Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marion Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marion Center, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 156 sites within ~10 miles of Marion Center. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Marion Center
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 Marion Center average
Your land is one point inside Marion Center
Everything above resolves to Marion Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 476 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 Marion Center Average
Marion Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marion Center
- ●One soil character for all of Marion Center
- ●Frost dates read at Marion Center's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marion Center's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marion Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marion Center, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marion Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marion Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marion Center average
How we know this about Marion Center
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 Marion Center’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 Marion Center
When does frost risk typically end in Marion Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marion Center typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Marion Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marion Center typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marion Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marion Center sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 14, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marion Center?
The federal record around Marion Center is a meaningful one — 276 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Marion Center?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marion Center's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marion Center'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 Marion Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Marion Center's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 476 acres it covers and 276 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marion Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marion Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 28 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 276 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marion Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marion Center's boundary and the 476 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marion Center's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Marion Centerlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marion Center's 476 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Indiana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Indiana 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 Indiana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marion Center's 476 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marion Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 476 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marion Center-wide figureread your own land →
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