Sagamore, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sagamore, 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 Sagamore 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 Sagamore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sagamore — the short answer
Sagamore, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 428 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 428 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 6a is Sagamore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sagamore's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sagamore
Each reading below is measured for Sagamore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSagamore runs about 186 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
MeasuredSagamore sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Sagamore is in
Sagamore sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sagamore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Armstrong County.
What Grows in Sagamore
Every plant below cleared Sagamore's own zone 6a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sagamore?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Sagamore
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Sagamore, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sagamore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sagamore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLTEL PAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SCHRECS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- ALS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PRIESTAS COUNTRY MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RAYMOND C HAYES TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WOOD PONTIAC CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- DALESSIO FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- NELSONS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PLUMVILLE DRY CLNRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- DIMAIOS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- COWANSHANNOCK TWP SPVRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- NELSONS MINI MART OF PLUMVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sagamore'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 Sagamore.
Total Sites
197
within ~10 miles of Sagamore
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sagamore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sagamore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sagamore, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 78 sites within ~10 miles of Sagamore. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Sagamore
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 Sagamore average
Your land is one point inside Sagamore
Everything above resolves to Sagamore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 428 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 Sagamore Average
Sagamore Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sagamore
- ●One soil character for all of Sagamore
- ●Frost dates read at Sagamore's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sagamore's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sagamore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sagamore, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sagamore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sagamore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sagamore average
How we know this about Sagamore
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 Sagamore’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 Sagamore
When does frost risk typically end in Sagamore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sagamore typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Sagamore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sagamore typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sagamore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sagamore sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 13, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sagamore?
The federal record around Sagamore shows 197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sagamore?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sagamore's scale — its 6a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sagamore'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 Sagamore’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sagamore's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 428 acres it covers and 197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sagamore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sagamore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 27 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sagamore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sagamore's boundary and the 428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sagamore's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sagamorelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sagamore's 428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sagamore's 428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sagamore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 428 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sagamore-wide figureread your own land →
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