South Fork, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in South Fork, 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 Fork 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 Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Fork — the short answer
South Fork, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 292 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 292 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 Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Fork's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Fork
Each reading below is measured for South Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Fork runs about 195 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 Fork 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 Fork is in
South Fork sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Fork's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cambria County.
What Grows in South Fork
Every plant below cleared South Fork's own zone 6a and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Fork?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 South Fork
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from South Fork, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JMA AUTOBrownfields · 950 ft
- FABOS CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- REESE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MARY E MURPHYS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SOUTH FORK PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- IMPALA MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- IMPALA MOTORSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BAUMGARDNER TRANSITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PHILIP MYERS PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JOHNSTOWN FLOOD NATL MEMORIALBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Johnstown Flood National Memorial maintenance wellNitrate · 1.3 mi
- MORLEY AUTO PARTS DIST INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Fork'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 Fork.
Total Sites
641
within ~10 miles of South Fork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
26 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Fork, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of South Fork. 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 Fork
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 Fork average
Your land is one point inside South Fork
Everything above resolves to South Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 292 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 Fork Average
South Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Fork
- ●One soil character for all of South Fork
- ●Frost dates read at South Fork's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Fork's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Fork, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Fork average
How we know this about South Fork
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 Fork’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 Fork
When does frost risk typically end in South Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Fork typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in South Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Fork typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Fork sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 16, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Fork?
The federal record around South Fork is a meaningful one — 641 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (356), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Fork?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Fork's scale — its 6a band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Fork'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 Fork’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Fork's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 292 acres it covers and 641 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 30 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 641 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Fork, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Fork's boundary and the 292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Fork's own centroid, the Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Forklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Fork's 292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cambria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cambria 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 Cambria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Fork's 292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Fork-wide figureread your own land →