Oneida, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oneida, 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 Oneida 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 Oneida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oneida — the short answer
Oneida, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 109 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 Oneida's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oneida's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oneida
Each reading below is measured for Oneida itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOneida runs about 191 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
MeasuredOneida 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 Oneida is in
Oneida sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oneida's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuylkill County.
What Grows in Oneida
Every plant below cleared Oneida's own zone 6b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oneida?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Oneida
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Oneida, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oneida
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oneida. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KUZMISSION SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- VOZAR GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SHEPPTON MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- VALLEY OF THE LAKES SKI VEHICLE MAINT BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PFNONWOVENS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- KAMERZEL FUEL SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- FUEL ON HAZLETONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BRANDONVILLE MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DENNISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- FELEGIE ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- HAZLETON-HENKELBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- NUREMBERG ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oneida'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 Oneida.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oneida
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oneida
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oneida, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oneida — Toxics Release Inventory (46 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Oneida
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 Oneida average
Your land is one point inside Oneida
Everything above resolves to Oneida as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Oneida Average
Oneida Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Oneida
- ●One soil character for all of Oneida
- ●Frost dates read at Oneida's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oneida's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oneida
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oneida, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oneida averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oneida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oneida average
How we know this about Oneida
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 Oneida’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 Oneida
When does frost risk typically end in Oneida?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oneida typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Oneida?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oneida typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oneida?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oneida sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 11, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oneida?
The federal record around Oneida runs heavier than most — 468 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (254), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Oneida?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oneida's scale — its 6b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oneida'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 Oneida’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oneida's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 468 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oneida's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oneida's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 25 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 468 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oneida, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oneida's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oneida's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Oneidalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oneida's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuylkill County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuylkill 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 Schuylkill County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oneida's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oneida you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 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 Oneida-wide figureread your own land →
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