South Renovo, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Renovo, 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 Renovo 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 Renovo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Renovo — the short answer
South Renovo, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 131 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 131 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 6b is South Renovo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Renovo's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Renovo
Each reading below is measured for South Renovo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Renovo runs about 179 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 Renovo sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Renovo is in
South Renovo sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at South Renovo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in South Renovo
Every plant below cleared South Renovo's own zone 6b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Renovo?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Renovo
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from South Renovo, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Renovo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Renovo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCOOTS SVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SKAT STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RANSDORF & SONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RENOVO IND PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FINNEFROCK STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SVC GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CN 47Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- CN 513Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- RENOVO ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PPL RENOVO CREW QUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SERVICE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CN 118Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Renovo'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 Renovo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Renovo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Renovo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Renovo, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of South Renovo. 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 South Renovo
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 Renovo average
Your land is one point inside South Renovo
Everything above resolves to South Renovo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 131 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 Renovo Average
South Renovo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across South Renovo
- ●One soil character for all of South Renovo
- ●Frost dates read at South Renovo's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Renovo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Renovo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Renovo, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Renovo averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Renovo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Renovo average
How we know this about South Renovo
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 Renovo’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 Renovo
When does frost risk typically end in South Renovo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Renovo typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in South Renovo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Renovo typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Renovo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Renovo sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 11, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Renovo?
The federal record around South Renovo shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in South Renovo?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Renovo's scale — its 6b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Renovo'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 Renovo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Renovo's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 131 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Renovo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Renovo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 25 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Renovo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Renovo's boundary and the 131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Renovo's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Renovolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Renovo's 131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Renovo's 131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Renovo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Renovo-wide figureread your own land →
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