New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Bethlehem, 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 New Bethlehem 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 New Bethlehem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Bethlehem — the short answer
New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 298 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 298 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 New Bethlehem's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Bethlehem's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Bethlehem
Each reading below is measured for New Bethlehem itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Bethlehem runs about 185 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
MeasuredNew Bethlehem 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 New Bethlehem is in
New Bethlehem sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Bethlehem's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clarion County.
What Grows in New Bethlehem
Every plant below cleared New Bethlehem's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Bethlehem?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 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 New Bethlehem
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from New Bethlehem, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Bethlehem
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Bethlehem. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HB DEVINEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CRAWFORD FURNITURE MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 1186Brownfields · 1400 ft
- NEW BETHLEHEM S BETHLEHEM ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SNYDERS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 600 BROAD STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HEFFNER BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- REDBANK VALLEY JR & SR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DRAYERS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DONALD SHIREY LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ST CHARLES REFRACTORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PORTER TWP SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Bethlehem'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 New Bethlehem.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of New Bethlehem
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Bethlehem
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Bethlehem
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Bethlehem, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 120 sites within ~10 miles of New Bethlehem. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in New Bethlehem
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 New Bethlehem average
Your land is one point inside New Bethlehem
Everything above resolves to New Bethlehem as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 298 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 New Bethlehem Average
New Bethlehem Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across New Bethlehem
- ●One soil character for all of New Bethlehem
- ●Frost dates read at New Bethlehem's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Bethlehem's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Bethlehem
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Bethlehem averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Bethlehem — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Bethlehem average
How we know this about New Bethlehem
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 New Bethlehem’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 New Bethlehem
When does frost risk typically end in New Bethlehem?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Bethlehem 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 New Bethlehem?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Bethlehem 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Bethlehem?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Bethlehem sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 14, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Bethlehem?
The federal record around New Bethlehem is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (120), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 New Bethlehem?
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 New Bethlehem's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Bethlehem'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 New Bethlehem’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Bethlehem's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 298 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Bethlehem's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Bethlehem's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 28 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Bethlehem, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Bethlehem's boundary and the 298 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Bethlehem's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Bethlehemlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Bethlehem's 298 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarion 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 Clarion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Bethlehem's 298 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Bethlehem you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 298 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 New Bethlehem-wide figureread your own land →
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