Morton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morton, 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 Morton 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 Morton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morton — the short answer
Morton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 229 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 229 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 7b is Morton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morton's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morton
Each reading below is measured for Morton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorton runs about 249 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
MeasuredMorton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Morton is in
Morton sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Morton
Every plant below cleared Morton's own zone 7b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morton?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Morton
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Morton, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILLS AUTO BODY INC/MORTONBrownfields · 700 ft
- MORTON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FEA INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- CONSULTING PATHOLOGISTS PABrownfields · 1000 ft
- BJS WHOLESALE CLUB NO 056Brownfields · 1000 ft
- AUTO RESEARCHBrownfields · 1000 ft
- UNITED TRANS MFGBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MATTHEWS CLNR/MORTONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP SCH OLPH COURTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PORRECA AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- JM OLIVER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morton'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 Morton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morton, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Morton. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Morton
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 Morton average
Your land is one point inside Morton
Everything above resolves to Morton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 229 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 Morton Average
Morton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Morton
- ●One soil character for all of Morton
- ●Frost dates read at Morton's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morton average
How we know this about Morton
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 Morton’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 Morton
When does frost risk typically end in Morton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morton typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Morton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morton typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morton sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 10, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morton?
The federal record around Morton runs heavier than most — 3,941 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,735), the nearest Brownfields 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 Morton?
From about Oct 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 Nov 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morton's scale — its 7b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morton'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 Morton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morton's own scale — its own ~249-day season between 28°F freezes, the 229 acres it covers and 3,941 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 24 and the ~249-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,941 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morton's boundary and the 229 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morton's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mortonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Morton's 229 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morton's 229 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 229 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 Morton-wide figureread your own land →
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