Mifflintown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mifflintown, 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 Mifflintown 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 Mifflintown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mifflintown — the short answer
Mifflintown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 90 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 90 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 7a is Mifflintown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mifflintown's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mifflintown
Each reading below is measured for Mifflintown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMifflintown runs about 209 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
MeasuredMifflintown sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Mifflintown is in
Mifflintown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mifflintown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Juniata County.
What Grows in Mifflintown
Every plant below cleared Mifflintown's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mifflintown?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Mifflintown
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Mifflintown, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mifflintown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mifflintown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MESSIAH LUTH CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MIFFLINTOWN HOSE CO 1Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JUNIATA SR 22 EASTBOUND OVER SR 35 EMERGENCY BRIDGE REPAIRBrownfields · 900 ft
- MIFFLINTOWN CTL OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MIFFLINTOWN MOBIL 5Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HACKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JERICHO MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CEDAR GROVE BRETHERN IN CHRIST CHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TUSCARORA JR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EMPIRE KOSHER POULTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JU 11Nitrate · 1100 ft
- LYON FASHION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mifflintown'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 Mifflintown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mifflintown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mifflintown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mifflintown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mifflintown — CAFO (15 sites) and Nitrate (82 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mifflintown
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 Mifflintown average
Your land is one point inside Mifflintown
Everything above resolves to Mifflintown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 90 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 Mifflintown Average
Mifflintown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mifflintown
- ●One soil character for all of Mifflintown
- ●Frost dates read at Mifflintown's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mifflintown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mifflintown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mifflintown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mifflintown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mifflintown average
How we know this about Mifflintown
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 Mifflintown’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 Mifflintown
When does frost risk typically end in Mifflintown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mifflintown typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Mifflintown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mifflintown typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mifflintown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mifflintown sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 18, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mifflintown?
The federal record around Mifflintown is a meaningful one — 299 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (154), 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 Mifflintown?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mifflintown's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mifflintown'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 Mifflintown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mifflintown's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 90 acres it covers and 299 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mifflintown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mifflintown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 1 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 299 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mifflintown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mifflintown's boundary and the 90 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mifflintown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mifflintownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mifflintown's 90 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 Mifflintown's 90 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mifflintown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 90 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 Mifflintown-wide figureread your own land →
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