Shippenville, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Shippenville, 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 Shippenville 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 Shippenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shippenville — the short answer
Shippenville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 248 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- 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
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 248 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 Shippenville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shippenville's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shippenville
Each reading below is measured for Shippenville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShippenville runs about 183 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
MeasuredShippenville 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 Shippenville is in
Shippenville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shippenville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clarion County.
What Grows in Shippenville
Every plant below cleared Shippenville's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shippenville?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Shippenville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Shippenville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Shippenville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shippenville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MERRYMANS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CARL W MOTTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SGL 63 HG BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PATS PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DICKS DRY CLNRSBrownfields · 850 ft
- SHAW MACK SALES & SVCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HUGHES SUPPLY NO HDHG 7352Brownfields · 2600 ft
- CR 92Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CLARION CNTY VOC TECH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ELK TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FULTON FOREST PRODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- COUNTRY FAIR 36Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shippenville'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 Shippenville.
Total Sites
248
within ~10 miles of Shippenville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shippenville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shippenville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shippenville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Shippenville. 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 Shippenville
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 Shippenville average
Your land is one point inside Shippenville
Everything above resolves to Shippenville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 248 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 Shippenville Average
Shippenville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Shippenville
- ●One soil character for all of Shippenville
- ●Frost dates read at Shippenville's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shippenville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shippenville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shippenville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shippenville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shippenville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shippenville average
How we know this about Shippenville
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 Shippenville’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 Shippenville
When does frost risk typically end in Shippenville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shippenville typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Shippenville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shippenville 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 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shippenville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shippenville sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 13, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shippenville?
The federal record around Shippenville is a meaningful one — 248 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Shippenville?
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 Shippenville's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shippenville'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 Shippenville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Shippenville's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 248 acres it covers and 248 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shippenville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shippenville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 27 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 248 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shippenville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shippenville's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shippenville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Shippenvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shippenville's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clarion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clarion 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 Clarion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shippenville's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shippenville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 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 Shippenville-wide figureread your own land →
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