Penn State Erie (Behrend), Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Penn State Erie (Behrend), 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Penn State Erie (Behrend) — the short answer
Penn State Erie (Behrend), Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 500 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 500 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Each reading below is measured for Penn State Erie (Behrend) itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPenn State Erie (Behrend) runs about 221 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
MeasuredPenn State Erie (Behrend) 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) is in
Penn State Erie (Behrend) sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Every plant below cleared Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own zone 6b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Penn State Erie (Behrend), first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Penn State Erie (Behrend). Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ERIE CITY WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 25 ft
- BEHREND COLLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MERIDIAN CREATIVE GROUPBrownfields · 2600 ft
- GETGO 3290Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GALAXY SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- COUNTRY FAIR 48Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BECKWITH MACH ERIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AR BEATTY DIESELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BEATTY DIESELBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- EXIT 9 SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- JA HOLTZ INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- UNIVERSITY AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Penn State Erie (Behrend)'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 Penn State Erie (Behrend).
Total Sites
1,026
within ~10 miles of Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Penn State Erie (Behrend), Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Penn State Erie (Behrend). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Penn State Erie (Behrend)
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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) average
Your land is one point inside Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Everything above resolves to Penn State Erie (Behrend) as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 500 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend) Average
Penn State Erie (Behrend) Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Penn State Erie (Behrend)
- ●One soil character for all of Penn State Erie (Behrend)
- ●Frost dates read at Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s scale: Apr 10 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Penn State Erie (Behrend)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Penn State Erie (Behrend), Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Penn State Erie (Behrend) averages can't show:
We read public map data around Penn State Erie (Behrend) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Penn State Erie (Behrend) average
How we know this about Penn State Erie (Behrend)
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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)’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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)
When does frost risk typically end in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Penn State Erie (Behrend) typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Penn State Erie (Behrend) typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Penn State Erie (Behrend) sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Nov 3, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
The federal record around Penn State Erie (Behrend) is a meaningful one — 1,026 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (438), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Penn State Erie (Behrend)'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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 500 acres it covers and 1,026 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 17 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,026 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Penn State Erie (Behrend), the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s boundary and the 500 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Penn State Erie (Behrend)lydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s 500 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Penn State Erie (Behrend)'s 500 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Penn State Erie (Behrend) you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 500 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Penn State Erie (Behrend)-wide figureread your own land →