Reese, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Reese, 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 Reese 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 Reese — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Reese — the short answer
Reese, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 93 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 93 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 Reese's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reese's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reese
Each reading below is measured for Reese itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReese runs about 205 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
MeasuredReese 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 Reese is in
Reese sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Reese's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Reese
Every plant below cleared Reese's own zone 6b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reese?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Reese
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Reese, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Reese
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reese. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BA 282Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- POOF-SLINKY INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- HOLLIDAYSBURG MUNI AUTHPFAS · 1.8 mi
- ROBERT LOUTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- TEL POWER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PENN TURF, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- FISHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BA 539Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BA 407Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- ANDERSON ELECTRONICS INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- WILLIAMSBURG GENERATING STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- FONDA GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reese'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 Reese.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reese
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reese
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 Reese
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 Reese average
Your land is one point inside Reese
Everything above resolves to Reese as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 93 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 Reese Average
Reese Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Reese
- ●One soil character for all of Reese
- ●Frost dates read at Reese's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reese's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reese
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reese, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reese averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reese — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reese average
How we know this about Reese
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 Reese’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 Reese
When does frost risk typically end in Reese?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reese typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Reese?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reese typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reese?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reese sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reese?
The federal record around Reese is a meaningful one — 628 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (314), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Reese?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Reese's scale — its 6b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reese'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 Reese’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Reese's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 93 acres it covers and 628 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reese's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reese's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 628 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reese, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reese's boundary and the 93 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Reese's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Reeselydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reese's 93 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reese's 93 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reese you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 93 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Reese-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides