Matamoras, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Matamoras, 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 Matamoras 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 Matamoras — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Matamoras — the short answer
Matamoras, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 444 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 444 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 Matamoras's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Matamoras's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Matamoras
Each reading below is measured for Matamoras itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMatamoras runs about 189 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
MeasuredMatamoras 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 Matamoras is in
Matamoras sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Matamoras's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pike County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Matamoras
Every plant below cleared Matamoras's own zone 6b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Matamoras?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Matamoras
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Matamoras, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Matamoras
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Matamoras. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXXON RAS NO 21007Brownfields · 650 ft
- DICK MAIS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- A & M TRUCK CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TRI STATE TOB KINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SCHNEIDERS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VANDERMARK SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- K MART 3884Brownfields · 1100 ft
- TRI STATE TOBACCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ON THE ROAD CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ADVANCED OIL RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PI 463Nitrate · 1600 ft
- MATAMORAS MUNI BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Matamoras'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 Matamoras.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Matamoras
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Matamoras
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Matamoras, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Matamoras — Nitrate (126 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Matamoras
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 Matamoras average
Your land is one point inside Matamoras
Everything above resolves to Matamoras as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 444 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 Matamoras Average
Matamoras Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Matamoras
- ●One soil character for all of Matamoras
- ●Frost dates read at Matamoras's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Matamoras's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Matamoras
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Matamoras, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Matamoras averages can't show:
We read public map data around Matamoras — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Matamoras average
How we know this about Matamoras
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 Matamoras’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 Matamoras
When does frost risk typically end in Matamoras?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Matamoras typically lands around Apr 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 May 10.
When is the first frost in Matamoras?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Matamoras typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Matamoras?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Matamoras sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 11, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Matamoras?
The federal record around Matamoras is a meaningful one — 331 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (135), the nearest Brownfields 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 Matamoras?
From about Sep 25 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 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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Matamoras's scale — its 6b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Matamoras'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 Matamoras’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Matamoras's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 444 acres it covers and 331 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Matamoras's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Matamoras's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 25 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 331 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Matamoras, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Matamoras's boundary and the 444 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Matamoras sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Matamoraslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Matamoras's 444 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 Matamoras's 444 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Matamoras you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 444 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Matamoras-wide figureread your own land →