South Montrose, 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 South Montrose, 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 Montrose 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 Montrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Montrose — the short answer
South Montrose, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 438 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 438 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 South Montrose's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Montrose's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Montrose
Each reading below is measured for South Montrose itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Montrose runs about 171 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 Montrose 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 South Montrose is in
South Montrose sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Montrose's own centroid rather than borrowed from Susquehanna County.
What Grows in South Montrose
Every plant below cleared South Montrose's own zone 5b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Montrose?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 South Montrose
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from South Montrose, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Montrose
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Montrose. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SQ 2Nitrate · 550 ft
- MONTROSE CONVENIENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SOUTH MONTROSE MILLToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- DALTON AIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SQ 17Nitrate · 1100 ft
- BENDIX FLIGHT SYSTEMS DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- BENDIX FLIGHT SYSTEMS DIVISIONSuperfund · 1500 ft
- COTERRA ENERGY INC PIPE YARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SQ 467Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- SQ 281Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- SQ 28Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- GAS SEARCH DRILLING SVCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Montrose'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 Montrose.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Montrose
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Montrose
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Montrose, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 106 sites within ~10 miles of South Montrose. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 South Montrose
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 Montrose average
Your land is one point inside South Montrose
Everything above resolves to South Montrose as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 438 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 Montrose Average
South Montrose Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across South Montrose
- ●One soil character for all of South Montrose
- ●Frost dates read at South Montrose's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Montrose's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Montrose
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Montrose, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Montrose averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Montrose — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Montrose average
How we know this about South Montrose
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 Montrose’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 Montrose
When does frost risk typically end in South Montrose?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Montrose typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in South Montrose?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Montrose typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Montrose?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Montrose sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 4, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Montrose?
The federal record around South Montrose is a meaningful one — 180 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (106), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Montrose?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Montrose's scale — its 5b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Montrose'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 Montrose’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Montrose's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 438 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Montrose's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Montrose's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 18 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Montrose, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Montrose's boundary and the 438 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Montrose's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Montroselydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Montrose's 438 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Susquehanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Susquehanna 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 Susquehanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Montrose's 438 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Montrose you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 438 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Montrose-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaSouth Montrose sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides