Rankin, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rankin, 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 Rankin 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 Rankin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rankin — the short answer
Rankin, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 277 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 277 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 Rankin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rankin's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rankin
Each reading below is measured for Rankin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRankin runs about 220 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
MeasuredRankin 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 Rankin is in
Rankin sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rankin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegheny County.
What Grows in Rankin
Every plant below cleared Rankin's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rankin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Rankin
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Rankin, first recorded 2014. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rankin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rankin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRITON HOLDINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SWISSVALE AUTO SURPLUS PARTSSuperfund · 1300 ft
- MILLER POTTERY ENGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NORWOODBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BABCOCK LUMBER CO SWISSVALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KEN ROSE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KOPP GLASS INC/PGHToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- KOPP GLASS INC/PGHBrownfields · 1800 ft
- SUPER ONE CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DAIRY MART 1125Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CARL & BOBS GULF SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 2ND & BRADDOCK AVE 15104Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rankin'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 Rankin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rankin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rankin
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 Rankin
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 Rankin average
Your land is one point inside Rankin
Everything above resolves to Rankin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 277 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 Rankin Average
Rankin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rankin
- ●One soil character for all of Rankin
- ●Frost dates read at Rankin's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rankin's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rankin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rankin, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rankin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rankin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rankin average
How we know this about Rankin
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 Rankin’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 Rankin
When does frost risk typically end in Rankin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rankin typically lands around Apr 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Rankin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rankin typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rankin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rankin sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 26, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rankin?
The federal record around Rankin is a meaningful one — 3,033 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,477), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rankin?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rankin's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rankin'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 Rankin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rankin's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 277 acres it covers and 3,033 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rankin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rankin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 9 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,033 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rankin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rankin's boundary and the 277 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rankin's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rankinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rankin's 277 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 Rankin's 277 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rankin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 277 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rankin-wide figureread your own land →