Reiffton, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Reiffton, 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 Reiffton 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 Reiffton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Reiffton — the short answer
Reiffton, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 7a is Reiffton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reiffton's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reiffton
Each reading below is measured for Reiffton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReiffton runs about 224 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
MeasuredReiffton sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Reiffton is in
Reiffton sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Reiffton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Berks County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Reiffton
Every plant below cleared Reiffton's own zone 7a and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reiffton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Reiffton
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Reiffton, first recorded 2016. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Reiffton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reiffton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIANT FOOD STORE 6446Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- K MART 3364Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LOWES OF EXETER TOWNSHIP PA #2819Brownfields · 1200 ft
- TARGET STORE T2529Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY NO 17557Brownfields · 1300 ft
- PETCO #1895Brownfields · 1500 ft
- ATLANTIC 0363 4953Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SHEETZ #273Brownfields · 1900 ft
- SUNOCO 0012 4800Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- KC AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TOWNSHIP OF EXETERBrownfields · 2600 ft
- EXETER TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reiffton'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 Reiffton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reiffton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reiffton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reiffton, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Reiffton. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Reiffton
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 Reiffton average
Your land is one point inside Reiffton
Everything above resolves to Reiffton 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 Reiffton Average
Reiffton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Reiffton
- ●One soil character for all of Reiffton
- ●Frost dates read at Reiffton's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reiffton's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reiffton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reiffton, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reiffton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reiffton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reiffton average
How we know this about Reiffton
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 Reiffton’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 Reiffton
When does frost risk typically end in Reiffton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reiffton typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Reiffton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reiffton typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reiffton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reiffton sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 27, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reiffton?
The federal record around Reiffton runs heavier than most — 1,445 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (778), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Reiffton?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Reiffton's scale — its 7a band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reiffton'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 Reiffton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Reiffton's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,222 acres it covers and 1,445 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reiffton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reiffton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 10 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,445 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reiffton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reiffton's boundary and the 1,222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Reiffton sits in the Northern Piedmont — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Reifftonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reiffton's 1,222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reiffton's 1,222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reiffton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,222 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Reiffton-wide figureread your own land →
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