Olyphant, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Olyphant, 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 Olyphant 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 Olyphant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olyphant — the short answer
Olyphant, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Olyphant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olyphant's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olyphant
Each reading below is measured for Olyphant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlyphant runs about 200 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
MeasuredOlyphant 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 Olyphant is in
Olyphant sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Olyphant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lackawanna County.
What Grows in Olyphant
Every plant below cleared Olyphant's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olyphant?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Olyphant
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Olyphant, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Olyphant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olyphant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITHS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- RIST CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MEDIVAC WASTE DISPOSALBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CANPACK USToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- ABC/WARREN/AMPLEX SUPERABRASIVESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ABC/WARREN/AMPLEX SUPERABRASIVESToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SAINT-GOBAINToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- CINRAM MFGToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- CINRAM MFGBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- WEA MFGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FASTENALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RICHARD TOYOTABrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olyphant'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 Olyphant.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olyphant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olyphant
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 Olyphant
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 Olyphant average
Your land is one point inside Olyphant
Everything above resolves to Olyphant as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Olyphant Average
Olyphant Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Olyphant
- ●One soil character for all of Olyphant
- ●Frost dates read at Olyphant's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olyphant's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olyphant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olyphant, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olyphant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olyphant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olyphant average
How we know this about Olyphant
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 Olyphant’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 Olyphant
When does frost risk typically end in Olyphant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olyphant typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Olyphant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olyphant 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olyphant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olyphant sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 14, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olyphant?
The federal record around Olyphant is a meaningful one — 898 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (502), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Olyphant?
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 Olyphant's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olyphant'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 Olyphant’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Olyphant's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,480 acres it covers and 898 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olyphant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olyphant's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 28 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 898 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olyphant, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olyphant's boundary and the 3,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olyphant's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Olyphantlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olyphant's 3,480 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 Olyphant's 3,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olyphant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,480 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Olyphant-wide figureread your own land →
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