Mount Cobb, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mount Cobb, 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 Mount Cobb 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 Mount Cobb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Cobb — the short answer
Mount Cobb, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 6a is Mount Cobb's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Cobb's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Cobb
Each reading below is measured for Mount Cobb itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Cobb runs about 175 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
MeasuredMount Cobb sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Mount Cobb is in
Mount Cobb sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Cobb's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lackawanna County.
What Grows in Mount Cobb
Every plant below cleared Mount Cobb's own zone 6a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Cobb?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Mount Cobb
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Mount Cobb, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Cobb
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Cobb. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCE ENVIRONMENTAL GROUP INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MT COBB SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MT COBB TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ENG DIST 4 0Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LK 511Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- RISE CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- I-84 EB/WB MILL/FILL LACKAWANNA MPMS 93807Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- PA0203 LAKE ARIELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ULTIMATE CAR WASH & QUICK LUBEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DELEOS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LHY VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LESTER BUTLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Cobb'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 Mount Cobb.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Cobb
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Cobb
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Cobb
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 Mount Cobb average
Your land is one point inside Mount Cobb
Everything above resolves to Mount Cobb as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Mount Cobb Average
Mount Cobb Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mount Cobb
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Cobb
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Cobb's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Cobb's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Cobb
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Cobb, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Cobb averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Cobb — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Cobb average
How we know this about Mount Cobb
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 Mount Cobb’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 Mount Cobb
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Cobb?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Cobb typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Mount Cobb?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Cobb typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Cobb?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Cobb sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 4, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Cobb?
The federal record around Mount Cobb is a meaningful one — 716 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (381), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Mount Cobb?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Cobb's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Cobb'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 Mount Cobb’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Cobb's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,570 acres it covers and 716 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Cobb's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Cobb's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 18 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 716 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Cobb, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Cobb's boundary and the 4,570 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Cobb's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mount Cobblydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Cobb's 4,570 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lackawanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Cobb's 4,570 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Cobb you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,570 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Mount Cobb-wide figureread your own land →
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