Roulette, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Roulette, 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 Roulette 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 Roulette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Roulette — the short answer
Roulette, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- 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 5b is Roulette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roulette's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roulette
Each reading below is measured for Roulette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoulette runs about 159 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRoulette sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Roulette is in
Roulette sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Roulette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Potter County.
What Grows in Roulette
Every plant below cleared Roulette's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roulette?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Roulette
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Roulette, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Roulette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roulette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORMS COLLISIONBrownfields · 200 ft
- CLOSES LUMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FAITHS CAFE & COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JOHNSON MOBILE HOMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TEDS USED AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NORTH PENN GAS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- RA WEIMER JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PO 333Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- POTTER PAC CORPBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- PO 307Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- PO 338Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BURTVILLE ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roulette'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 Roulette.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Roulette
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roulette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roulette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roulette, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Roulette. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Roulette
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 Roulette average
Your land is one point inside Roulette
Everything above resolves to Roulette 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 Roulette Average
Roulette Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Roulette
- ●One soil character for all of Roulette
- ●Frost dates read at Roulette's scale: May 7 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roulette's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roulette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roulette, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roulette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roulette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roulette average
How we know this about Roulette
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 Roulette’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 Roulette
When does frost risk typically end in Roulette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roulette typically lands around May 7, 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 May 28.
When is the first frost in Roulette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roulette typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roulette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roulette sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 29, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roulette?
The federal record around Roulette shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Roulette?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roulette's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roulette'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 Roulette’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Roulette's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,102 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roulette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roulette's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 13 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roulette, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roulette's boundary and the 1,102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Roulette's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Roulettelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roulette's 1,102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Potter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Potter 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 Potter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roulette's 1,102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roulette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Roulette-wide figureread your own land →