South Connellsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 South Connellsville, 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 South Connellsville 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 South Connellsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Connellsville — the short answer
South Connellsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- 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 6a is South Connellsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Connellsville's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Connellsville
Each reading below is measured for South Connellsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Connellsville runs about 198 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
MeasuredSouth Connellsville 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 South Connellsville is in
South Connellsville sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Connellsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in South Connellsville
Every plant below cleared South Connellsville's own zone 6a and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Connellsville?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 South Connellsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from South Connellsville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Connellsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Connellsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARSH ASPHALT - CONNELLSVILLEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- HR GARLICK SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANCHOR GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ANCHOR GLASS CONNELLSVILLE PLTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CROWN CORK & SEAL CO/SOUTH CONNELLSVILLEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CROWN CORK & SEAL CO/SOUTH CONNELLSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- BOB KIMMELS USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SUPER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- L R PAINT AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- INDIAN CREEK FILTRATION PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JOHN W SPARROWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DEMARCOS NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Connellsville'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 South Connellsville.
Total Sites
354
within ~10 miles of South Connellsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Connellsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Connellsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Connellsville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of South Connellsville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in South Connellsville
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 South Connellsville average
Your land is one point inside South Connellsville
Everything above resolves to South Connellsville 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 South Connellsville Average
South Connellsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Connellsville
- ●One soil character for all of South Connellsville
- ●Frost dates read at South Connellsville's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Connellsville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Connellsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Connellsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Connellsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Connellsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Connellsville average
How we know this about South Connellsville
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 South Connellsville’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 South Connellsville
When does frost risk typically end in South Connellsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Connellsville typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in South Connellsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Connellsville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Connellsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Connellsville sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 17, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Connellsville?
The federal record around South Connellsville is a meaningful one — 354 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (193), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 South Connellsville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Connellsville's scale — its 6a band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Connellsville'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 South Connellsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Connellsville's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,076 acres it covers and 354 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Connellsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Connellsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 31 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 354 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Connellsville, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Connellsville's boundary and the 1,076 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Connellsville's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Connellsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Connellsville's 1,076 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Connellsville's 1,076 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Connellsville 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 about 0.3 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 South Connellsville-wide figureread your own land →
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