McAlisterville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McAlisterville, 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 McAlisterville 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 McAlisterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McAlisterville — the short answer
McAlisterville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 McAlisterville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McAlisterville's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McAlisterville
Each reading below is measured for McAlisterville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcAlisterville runs about 204 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
MeasuredMcAlisterville 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 McAlisterville is in
McAlisterville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McAlisterville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Juniata County.
What Grows in McAlisterville
Every plant below cleared McAlisterville's own zone 6b and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McAlisterville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 McAlisterville
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from McAlisterville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McAlisterville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McAlisterville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PA BLOCK & BLDG PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- INCH EQUIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MERTZ FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VILLAGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MCALISTERVILLE STONE QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ROSEWOOD MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LANDIS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- JU 373Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- JOHN FRYMOYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- JU 345Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- E MARLENE GLASS FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ELVIN ZIMMERMAN FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McAlisterville'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 McAlisterville.
Total Sites
237
within ~10 miles of McAlisterville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McAlisterville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McAlisterville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McAlisterville, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of McAlisterville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in McAlisterville
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 McAlisterville average
Your land is one point inside McAlisterville
Everything above resolves to McAlisterville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 McAlisterville Average
McAlisterville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across McAlisterville
- ●One soil character for all of McAlisterville
- ●Frost dates read at McAlisterville's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McAlisterville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McAlisterville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McAlisterville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McAlisterville averages can't show:
We read public map data around McAlisterville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McAlisterville average
How we know this about McAlisterville
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 McAlisterville’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 McAlisterville
When does frost risk typically end in McAlisterville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McAlisterville typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in McAlisterville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McAlisterville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McAlisterville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McAlisterville sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 17, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McAlisterville?
The federal record around McAlisterville is a meaningful one — 237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 McAlisterville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McAlisterville's scale — its 6b band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McAlisterville'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 McAlisterville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McAlisterville's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,123 acres it covers and 237 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McAlisterville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McAlisterville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 31 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 237 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McAlisterville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McAlisterville's boundary and the 1,123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McAlisterville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McAlistervillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McAlisterville's 1,123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Juniata County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Juniata 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 Juniata County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McAlisterville's 1,123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McAlisterville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,123 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 McAlisterville-wide figureread your own land →
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