Mount Union, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Union, 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 Union 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 Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Union — the short answer
Mount Union, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 742 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 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 742 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 Mount Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Union's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Union
Each reading below is measured for Mount Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Union runs about 214 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
MeasuredMount Union 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 Mount Union is in
Mount Union sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mount Union's own centroid rather than borrowed from Huntingdon County.
What Grows in Mount Union
Every plant below cleared Mount Union's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Union?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 6 — 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 Mount Union
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Mount Union, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mount Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 3619Brownfields · 100 ft
- HANCOCKS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- IND HARDWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JACKS STATIONBrownfields · 450 ft
- HUNTINGDON CNTY INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- DIVELYS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 750 ft
- CURBS PLUS INCBrownfields · 800 ft
- 3 N JEFFERSON ST MT UNIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- NORTH AMERICAN REFRACTORIES COToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- MT UNION CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- E DEVECCHIS & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 40Brownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Union'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 Union.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Mount Union
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Union
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Mount Union
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 Union average
Your land is one point inside Mount Union
Everything above resolves to Mount Union as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 742 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 Union Average
Mount Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mount Union
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Union
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Union's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Union's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Union, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Union average
How we know this about Mount Union
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 Union’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 Union
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Union 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 Mount Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Union typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Union sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 23, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Union?
The federal record around Mount Union shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mount Union?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Union's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Union'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 Union’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mount Union's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 742 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Union's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 6 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Union, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Union's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Union's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mount Unionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Union's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntingdon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Union's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mount Union-wide figureread your own land →
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