Spartansburg, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Spartansburg, 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 Spartansburg 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 Spartansburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spartansburg — the short answer
Spartansburg, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 424 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 424 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 Spartansburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spartansburg's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spartansburg
Each reading below is measured for Spartansburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpartansburg runs about 192 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
MeasuredSpartansburg 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 Spartansburg is in
Spartansburg sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spartansburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Spartansburg
Every plant below cleared Spartansburg's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spartansburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. 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 Spartansburg
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Spartansburg, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spartansburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spartansburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLEAR LAKE LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FISHER STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 10772Brownfields · 1200 ft
- RAY A DIEMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SLOCUMS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AEP SPARTANSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPARTA TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EHRHART TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- UNION DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ER 1714Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- WR 371Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- SPARTANSBURG FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spartansburg'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 Spartansburg.
Total Sites
181
within ~10 miles of Spartansburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spartansburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spartansburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spartansburg, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Spartansburg. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Spartansburg
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 Spartansburg average
Your land is one point inside Spartansburg
Everything above resolves to Spartansburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 424 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 Spartansburg Average
Spartansburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Spartansburg
- ●One soil character for all of Spartansburg
- ●Frost dates read at Spartansburg's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spartansburg's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spartansburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spartansburg, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spartansburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spartansburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spartansburg average
How we know this about Spartansburg
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 Spartansburg’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 Spartansburg
When does frost risk typically end in Spartansburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spartansburg typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Spartansburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spartansburg 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spartansburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spartansburg sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 17, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spartansburg?
The federal record around Spartansburg shows 181 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Spartansburg?
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 Spartansburg's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spartansburg'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 Spartansburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spartansburg's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 424 acres it covers and 181 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spartansburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spartansburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 31 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 181 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spartansburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spartansburg's boundary and the 424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spartansburg's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Spartansburglydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spartansburg's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spartansburg's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spartansburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Spartansburg-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaSpartansburg sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides