Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Nesquehoning, 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 Nesquehoning 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 Nesquehoning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nesquehoning — the short answer
Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 Nesquehoning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nesquehoning's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nesquehoning
Each reading below is measured for Nesquehoning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNesquehoning runs about 197 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
MeasuredNesquehoning 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 Nesquehoning is in
Nesquehoning sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nesquehoning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carbon County.
What Grows in Nesquehoning
Every plant below cleared Nesquehoning's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nesquehoning?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Nesquehoning
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Nesquehoning, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Nesquehoning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nesquehoning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANK ARIETA PLUMBING & HEATING FUEL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 1 3 5 W COLUMBUS AVENUE PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1325Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- KMEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- KMEToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- WOLVERINE TECHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KOVATCH BUICK OLDSMOBILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- THREE POINTS QUICK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TURKEY HILL 87Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KOVATCH BUICK OLDSMOBILE DEALERSHIPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- KATTNER COAL & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NESQUEHONING BORO GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nesquehoning'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 Nesquehoning.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nesquehoning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nesquehoning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nesquehoning, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nesquehoning — PFAS (6 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Nesquehoning
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 Nesquehoning average
Your land is one point inside Nesquehoning
Everything above resolves to Nesquehoning as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Nesquehoning Average
Nesquehoning Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Nesquehoning
- ●One soil character for all of Nesquehoning
- ●Frost dates read at Nesquehoning's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nesquehoning's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nesquehoning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nesquehoning, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nesquehoning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nesquehoning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nesquehoning average
How we know this about Nesquehoning
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 Nesquehoning’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 Nesquehoning
When does frost risk typically end in Nesquehoning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nesquehoning typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Nesquehoning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nesquehoning typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nesquehoning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nesquehoning sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 14, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nesquehoning?
The federal record around Nesquehoning runs heavier than most — 426 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (271), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Nesquehoning?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nesquehoning's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nesquehoning'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 Nesquehoning’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Nesquehoning's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,544 acres it covers and 426 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nesquehoning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nesquehoning's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 28 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 426 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nesquehoning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nesquehoning's boundary and the 13,544 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nesquehoning's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Nesquehoninglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nesquehoning's 13,544 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carbon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carbon 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 Carbon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nesquehoning's 13,544 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nesquehoning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,544 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Nesquehoning-wide figureread your own land →