Robertsdale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Robertsdale, 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 Robertsdale 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 Robertsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Robertsdale — the short answer
Robertsdale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 120 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 120 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 Robertsdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Robertsdale's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Robertsdale
Each reading below is measured for Robertsdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRobertsdale runs about 208 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
MeasuredRobertsdale 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 Robertsdale is in
Robertsdale sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Robertsdale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Huntingdon County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Robertsdale
Every plant below cleared Robertsdale's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Robertsdale?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Robertsdale
Spotted lanternfly documented 0 miles from Robertsdale, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Robertsdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Robertsdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HU 102Nitrate · 950 ft
- SGL 121Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 10736Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- HU 109Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- OUR PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HORTONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BROAD TOP QUIK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- COOKS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NEWBURG COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MCDONALDS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- WARNER CAFOCAFO · 4.7 mi
- BD 374Nitrate · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Robertsdale'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 Robertsdale.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Robertsdale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Robertsdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Robertsdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Robertsdale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Robertsdale — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Robertsdale
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 Robertsdale average
Your land is one point inside Robertsdale
Everything above resolves to Robertsdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 120 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 Robertsdale Average
Robertsdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Robertsdale
- ●One soil character for all of Robertsdale
- ●Frost dates read at Robertsdale's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Robertsdale's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Robertsdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Robertsdale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Robertsdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Robertsdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Robertsdale average
How we know this about Robertsdale
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 Robertsdale’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 Robertsdale
When does frost risk typically end in Robertsdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Robertsdale typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Robertsdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Robertsdale typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Robertsdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Robertsdale sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Robertsdale?
The federal record around Robertsdale shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Robertsdale?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Robertsdale's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Robertsdale'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 Robertsdale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Robertsdale's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 120 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Robertsdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Robertsdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Robertsdale, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Robertsdale's boundary and the 120 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Robertsdale sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Robertsdalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Robertsdale's 120 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Huntingdon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Huntingdon 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 Huntingdon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Robertsdale's 120 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Robertsdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 120 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Robertsdale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides