McAdoo, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McAdoo, 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 McAdoo 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 McAdoo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
McAdoo — the short answer
McAdoo, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 222 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 222 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 McAdoo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McAdoo's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McAdoo
Each reading below is measured for McAdoo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcAdoo runs about 197 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
MeasuredMcAdoo 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 McAdoo is in
McAdoo sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McAdoo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in McAdoo
Every plant below cleared McAdoo's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McAdoo?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around McAdoo
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from McAdoo, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McAdoo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McAdoo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEGLEY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- R&M AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HONEYBROOKToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- JOES AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ALTADIS USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ALTADIS USA INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ALTADIS USA INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- M VALLEY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- RUSSOS SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ITG CIGARSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- HAULMARK INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- MARK LINE INDS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McAdoo'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 McAdoo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McAdoo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McAdoo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McAdoo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McAdoo — Toxics Release Inventory (50 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in McAdoo
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 McAdoo average
Your land is one point inside McAdoo
Everything above resolves to McAdoo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 222 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 McAdoo Average
McAdoo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across McAdoo
- ●One soil character for all of McAdoo
- ●Frost dates read at McAdoo's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McAdoo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McAdoo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McAdoo, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McAdoo averages can't show:
We read public map data around McAdoo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McAdoo average
How we know this about McAdoo
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 McAdoo’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 McAdoo
When does frost risk typically end in McAdoo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McAdoo typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in McAdoo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McAdoo 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 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McAdoo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McAdoo sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 14, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McAdoo?
The federal record around McAdoo runs heavier than most — 585 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (332), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McAdoo?
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 McAdoo's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McAdoo'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 McAdoo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McAdoo's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 222 acres it covers and 585 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McAdoo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McAdoo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 28 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 585 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McAdoo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McAdoo's boundary and the 222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McAdoo's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McAdoolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McAdoo's 222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McAdoo's 222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McAdoo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 222 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 McAdoo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides