Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pittsburgh, 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 Pittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pittsburgh — the short answer
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 35K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 35K 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 Pittsburgh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pittsburgh's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pittsburgh
Each reading below is measured for Pittsburgh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPittsburgh runs about 227 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
MeasuredPittsburgh 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 Pittsburgh is in
Pittsburgh sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pittsburgh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Pittsburgh
Every plant below cleared Pittsburgh's own zone 6b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pittsburgh?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Pittsburgh
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Pittsburgh, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pittsburgh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pittsburgh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CTL MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- HOUSING AUTHORITY CITY OF PGHBrownfields · 1100 ft
- A M G SIGNBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CITY OF PITTSBURGHBrownfields · 1400 ft
- BVBS MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- COLUMBIA ARCHITECTURAL METALS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EBENZER TOWERS APTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- METALTECH/PGHBrownfields · 1700 ft
- METALTECH/PGHToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 7199Brownfields · 1900 ft
- FORMER H BEAN GASOLINE & SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- EQUIPMENT REPAIR SHOP BLDG 25Brownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pittsburgh'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 Pittsburgh.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pittsburgh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pittsburgh
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 Pittsburgh
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 Pittsburgh average
Your land is one point inside Pittsburgh
Everything above resolves to Pittsburgh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 35K 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 city 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 Pittsburgh Average
Pittsburgh Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pittsburgh
- ●One soil character for all of Pittsburgh
- ●Frost dates read at Pittsburgh's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pittsburgh's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pittsburgh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pittsburgh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pittsburgh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pittsburgh average
How we know this about Pittsburgh
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pittsburgh’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Pittsburgh
When does frost risk typically end in Pittsburgh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsburgh typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Pittsburgh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsburgh typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pittsburgh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pittsburgh sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 31, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pittsburgh?
The federal record around Pittsburgh is a meaningful one — 3,385 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,615), 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 Pittsburgh?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pittsburgh's scale — its 6b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pittsburgh'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 Pittsburgh’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pittsburgh's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 35,439 acres it covers and 3,385 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pittsburgh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pittsburgh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 14 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,385 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pittsburgh, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pittsburgh's boundary and the 35,439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pittsburgh's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Pittsburghlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pittsburgh's 35,439 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 Pittsburgh's 35,439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pittsburgh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,439 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 Pittsburgh-wide figureread your own land →