Port Allegany, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Allegany, 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 Port Allegany 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 Port Allegany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Allegany — the short answer
Port Allegany, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 5b is Port Allegany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Allegany's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Allegany
Each reading below is measured for Port Allegany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Allegany runs about 161 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
MeasuredPort Allegany sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Port Allegany is in
Port Allegany sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Port Allegany's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKean County.
What Grows in Port Allegany
Every plant below cleared Port Allegany's own zone 5b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Allegany?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Port Allegany
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Port Allegany, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Port Allegany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Allegany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CULVER BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SHEETZ STORE NO 166Brownfields · 1600 ft
- SHEETZ 166 REBUILDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PORT EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SHEETZ 166Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- UGI CENTRAL PENN GAS INC PORT ALLEGANYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CONSOLIDATED RAIL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PGH CORNINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PORT ALLEGHENY BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LIBERTY TWP MCKEAN CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ABBOTT DAIRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RICKS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Allegany'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 Port Allegany.
Total Sites
82
within ~10 miles of Port Allegany
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Allegany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Allegany
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 Port Allegany
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 Port Allegany average
Your land is one point inside Port Allegany
Everything above resolves to Port Allegany as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Port Allegany Average
Port Allegany Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Port Allegany
- ●One soil character for all of Port Allegany
- ●Frost dates read at Port Allegany's scale: May 5 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Allegany's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Allegany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Allegany averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Allegany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Allegany average
How we know this about Port Allegany
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 Port Allegany’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 Port Allegany
When does frost risk typically end in Port Allegany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Allegany typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Port Allegany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Allegany typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Allegany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Allegany sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 29, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Allegany?
The federal record around Port Allegany shows 82 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Port Allegany?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Allegany's scale — its 5b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Allegany'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 Port Allegany’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Port Allegany's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,135 acres it covers and 82 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Allegany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Allegany's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 13 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 82 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Allegany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Allegany's boundary and the 1,135 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Allegany's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Port Alleganylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Allegany's 1,135 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKean 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 McKean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Allegany's 1,135 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Allegany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,135 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Port Allegany-wide figureread your own land →