Masthope, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Masthope, 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 Masthope 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 Masthope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Masthope — the short answer
Masthope, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 3K 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Masthope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Masthope's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Masthope
Each reading below is measured for Masthope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMasthope runs about 171 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
MeasuredMasthope 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 Masthope is in
Masthope sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Masthope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pike County.
What Grows in Masthope
Every plant below cleared Masthope's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Masthope?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 16 — 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 Masthope
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Masthope, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Masthope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Masthope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASTHOPE POCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PI 248Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- AQUA PA FAWN LAKE FORESTPFAS · 1.9 mi
- FAWN LAKE FOREST MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TEN MILE RIVER LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE LLC STATION 323Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- LACKAWAXEN TELEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 590 SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CONSOILDATED RR INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- LACKAWAXEN TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- PI 651Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- PI 592Nitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Masthope'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 Masthope.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Masthope
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Masthope
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Masthope, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Masthope — Nitrate (100 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Masthope
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 Masthope average
Your land is one point inside Masthope
Everything above resolves to Masthope as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Masthope Average
Masthope Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Masthope
- ●One soil character for all of Masthope
- ●Frost dates read at Masthope's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Masthope's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Masthope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Masthope, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Masthope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Masthope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Masthope average
How we know this about Masthope
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 Masthope’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 Masthope
When does frost risk typically end in Masthope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Masthope 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 Masthope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Masthope typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Masthope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Masthope sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 2, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Masthope?
The federal record around Masthope is a meaningful one — 213 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Masthope?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Masthope's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Masthope'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 Masthope’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Masthope's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,343 acres it covers and 213 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Masthope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Masthope's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 16 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 213 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Masthope, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Masthope's boundary and the 3,343 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Masthope's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Masthopelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Masthope's 3,343 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pike County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pike 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 Pike County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Masthope's 3,343 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Masthope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,343 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Masthope-wide figureread your own land →