Rothsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rothsville, 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 Rothsville 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 Rothsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rothsville — the short answer
Rothsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Rothsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rothsville's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rothsville
Each reading below is measured for Rothsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRothsville runs about 223 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
MeasuredRothsville 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 Rothsville is in
Rothsville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rothsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lancaster County.
What Grows in Rothsville
Every plant below cleared Rothsville's own zone 7a and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rothsville?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Rothsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Rothsville, first recorded 2017. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rothsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rothsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROTHSVILLE VOL FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- EAST COAST PROPELLER SERVICEBrownfields · 550 ft
- GETTY 69485Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WTMA PUMP STA 5Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WTMA PUMP STA 7Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHULTZ TRANSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EMM SALES & SVC INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- LITITZ GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIGHS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WTMA PUMP STA 8Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BINKLEY & HURST BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KE WEAVER PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rothsville'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 Rothsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rothsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rothsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rothsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rothsville — CAFO (29 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (130 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Rothsville
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 Rothsville average
Your land is one point inside Rothsville
Everything above resolves to Rothsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Rothsville Average
Rothsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rothsville
- ●One soil character for all of Rothsville
- ●Frost dates read at Rothsville's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rothsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rothsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rothsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rothsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rothsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rothsville average
How we know this about Rothsville
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 Rothsville’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 Rothsville
When does frost risk typically end in Rothsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rothsville typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Rothsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rothsville typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rothsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rothsville sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 24, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rothsville?
The federal record around Rothsville runs heavier than most — 2,047 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,040), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rothsville?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rothsville's scale — its 7a band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rothsville'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 Rothsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rothsville's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,577 acres it covers and 2,047 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rothsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rothsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 7 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,047 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rothsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rothsville's boundary and the 1,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rothsville's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Rothsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rothsville's 1,577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lancaster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lancaster 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 Lancaster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rothsville's 1,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rothsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,577 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 Rothsville-wide figureread your own land →