Masontown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, 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 Masontown, 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 Masontown 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 Masontown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Masontown — the short answer
Masontown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 957 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 957 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 Masontown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Masontown's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Masontown
Each reading below is measured for Masontown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMasontown runs about 211 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
MeasuredMasontown 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 Masontown is in
Masontown sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Masontown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Masontown
Every plant below cleared Masontown's own zone 6b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Masontown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Masontown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Masontown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Masontown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Masontown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KOSTURA CLEANERSBrownfields · 200 ft
- KOSTURA CLNRUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MASONTOWN BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PETES AUTO BODY & FRAMEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HARRY LEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CORSETTIS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PATS MOTOR PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 7024Brownfields · 1800 ft
- BOBAKS SERVICENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CTR INDEPENDENT 8 MASONTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FIKE CHEVROLETBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SHAFFERS PENNZOIL STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Masontown'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 Masontown.
Total Sites
291
within ~10 miles of Masontown
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Masontown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Masontown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Masontown, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Masontown. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Masontown
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 Masontown average
Your land is one point inside Masontown
Everything above resolves to Masontown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 957 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 Masontown Average
Masontown Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Masontown
- ●One soil character for all of Masontown
- ●Frost dates read at Masontown's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Masontown's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Masontown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Masontown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Masontown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Masontown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Masontown average
How we know this about Masontown
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 Masontown’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 Masontown
When does frost risk typically end in Masontown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Masontown typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Masontown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Masontown typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Masontown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Masontown sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 21, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Masontown?
The federal record around Masontown is a meaningful one — 291 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (156), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Masontown?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Masontown's scale — its 6b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Masontown'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 Masontown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Masontown's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 957 acres it covers and 291 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Masontown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Masontown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 4 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 291 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Masontown, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Masontown's boundary and the 957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Masontown sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Masontownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Masontown's 957 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Masontown's 957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Masontown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 957 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 Masontown-wide figureread your own land →
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