Spry, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spry, 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 Spry 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 Spry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Spry — the short answer
Spry, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Spry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spry's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spry
Each reading below is measured for Spry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpry runs about 215 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSpry sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Spry is in
Spry sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spry's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Spry
Every plant below cleared Spry's own zone 7a and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spry?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Spry
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Spry, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YORK TWP ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MCCLANE BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1100 ft
- SCHMUCKS CLNRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HANNA CLNRS/QUEEN STBrownfields · 1200 ft
- YORK TWPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HENRY TIRE SVC INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- ROYAL FARMS 122Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CATERPILLARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TURKEY HILL 44Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SHEETZ 305Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STANS AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ATLANTIC 0363 2148Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spry'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 Spry.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spry, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 130 sites within ~10 miles of Spry. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Spry
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 Spry average
Your land is one point inside Spry
Everything above resolves to Spry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Spry Average
Spry Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Spry
- ●One soil character for all of Spry
- ●Frost dates read at Spry's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spry's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spry, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spry average
How we know this about Spry
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 Spry’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 Spry
When does frost risk typically end in Spry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spry typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Spry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spry typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spry sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 22, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spry?
The federal record around Spry runs heavier than most — 1,360 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (717), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Spry?
From about Oct 6 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 Nov 5 (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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spry's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spry'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 Spry’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Spry's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,653 acres it covers and 1,360 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 5 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,360 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spry's boundary and the 1,653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spry's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sprylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spry's 1,653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spry's 1,653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,653 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 Spry-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaSpry sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides