Smethport, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smethport, 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 Smethport 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 Smethport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smethport — the short answer
Smethport, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- 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 Smethport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smethport's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smethport
Each reading below is measured for Smethport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmethport runs about 162 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
MeasuredSmethport 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 Smethport is in
Smethport sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Smethport's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKean County.
What Grows in Smethport
Every plant below cleared Smethport's own zone 5b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smethport?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Smethport
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Smethport, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Smethport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smethport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KWIK FILL M0156 186Brownfields · 400 ft
- KWIK FILL M 156Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SMETHPORT COLLISIONBrownfields · 800 ft
- MC 27Nitrate · 1000 ft
- SMETHPORT PACIFIC PRIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SMETHPORT AREA SCH DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE CO LLC COMPR STA 310Brownfields · 1700 ft
- DONS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SENECA HIGHLANDS IU NINEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- SMETHPORT GULF & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JB DISTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smethport'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 Smethport.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Smethport
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smethport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smethport
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Smethport
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 Smethport average
Your land is one point inside Smethport
Everything above resolves to Smethport 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 Smethport Average
Smethport Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Smethport
- ●One soil character for all of Smethport
- ●Frost dates read at Smethport's scale: May 5 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smethport's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smethport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smethport, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smethport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smethport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smethport average
How we know this about Smethport
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 Smethport’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 Smethport
When does frost risk typically end in Smethport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smethport typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Smethport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smethport typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smethport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smethport sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 30, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smethport?
The federal record around Smethport is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Brownfields 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 Smethport?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smethport's scale — its 5b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smethport'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 Smethport’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Smethport's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,076 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smethport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smethport's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 14 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smethport, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smethport's boundary and the 1,076 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smethport's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Smethportlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Smethport's 1,076 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKean 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 McKean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smethport's 1,076 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smethport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,076 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 Smethport-wide figureread your own land →