Pitcairn, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Pitcairn, 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 Pitcairn 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 Pitcairn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pitcairn — the short answer
Pitcairn, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 324 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 324 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 Pitcairn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pitcairn's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pitcairn
Each reading below is measured for Pitcairn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPitcairn 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
MeasuredPitcairn 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 Pitcairn is in
Pitcairn sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pitcairn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Pitcairn
Every plant below cleared Pitcairn'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 Pitcairn?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Pitcairn
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Pitcairn, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pitcairn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pitcairn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMES GOLICN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HILLTOP AUTO REPAIR INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- GOLICK JEEP EAGLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SUNOCO, #0363-0845Brownfields · 2200 ft
- LNC STORE 9 PITCAIRN SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MAGILL AUTO PITCAI SERVICEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SPEEDWAY 2917Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY 2917Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SHEETZ 327Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- SHEETZ 327Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JACKS TUXEDOBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BELL ATLANTICBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pitcairn'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 Pitcairn.
Total Sites
2,070
within ~10 miles of Pitcairn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pitcairn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pitcairn
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Pitcairn
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 Pitcairn average
Your land is one point inside Pitcairn
Everything above resolves to Pitcairn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 324 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 Pitcairn Average
Pitcairn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pitcairn
- ●One soil character for all of Pitcairn
- ●Frost dates read at Pitcairn's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pitcairn's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pitcairn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pitcairn, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pitcairn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pitcairn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pitcairn average
How we know this about Pitcairn
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 Pitcairn’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 Pitcairn
When does frost risk typically end in Pitcairn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pitcairn typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Pitcairn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pitcairn typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pitcairn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pitcairn sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 28, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pitcairn?
The federal record around Pitcairn is a meaningful one — 2,070 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (981), 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 Pitcairn?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pitcairn's scale — its 6b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pitcairn'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 Pitcairn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pitcairn's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 324 acres it covers and 2,070 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pitcairn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pitcairn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 11 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,070 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pitcairn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pitcairn's boundary and the 324 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 Pitcairn's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pitcairnlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pitcairn's 324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegheny County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegheny 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 Allegheny County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pitcairn's 324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pitcairn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 324 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 Pitcairn-wide figureread your own land →