State Line, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in State Line, 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 State Line 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 State Line — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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State Line — the short answer
State Line, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- 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 State Line's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against State Line's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in State Line
Each reading below is measured for State Line itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredState Line runs about 226 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
MeasuredState Line 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 State Line is in
State Line sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at State Line's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in State Line
Every plant below cleared State Line's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in State Line?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around State Line
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from State Line, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near State Line
Closest first, within ~10 miles of State Line. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JLG INDUSTRIES INC- MOLLY PITCHER FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- JLG INDUSTRIES INC- MOLLY PITCHER FACILITYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- C V DIESEL SALES & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- V P OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JLG IND INC/GREENCASTLE HYKES RD ROLLBACK PLTToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- JLG IND INC/GREENCASTLE HYKES RD ROLLBACK PLTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- JERR DAN CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CON-WAY FREIGHT XHGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CON-WAY FREIGHT-XHG (GREENCASTLE)Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- HOFFMAN TRANSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- XPO LOGISTICS FREIGHT INC XHG2Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALMART.COM FULFILLMENT CTR 7381Brownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from State Line'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 State Line.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of State Line
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of State Line
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around State Line, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of State Line. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in State Line
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 State Line average
Your land is one point inside State Line
Everything above resolves to State Line 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 State Line Average
State Line Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across State Line
- ●One soil character for all of State Line
- ●Frost dates read at State Line's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not State Line's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in State Line
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in State Line, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that State Line averages can't show:
We read public map data around State Line — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the State Line average
How we know this about State Line
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 State Line’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 State Line
When does frost risk typically end in State Line?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in State Line typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in State Line?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in State Line typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in State Line?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, State Line sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 29, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in State Line?
The federal record around State Line is a meaningful one — 955 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (474), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 State Line?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at State Line's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of State Line'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 State Line’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at State Line's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,752 acres it covers and 955 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- State Line's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- State Line's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 12 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 955 documented contamination sites on the federal record near State Line, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- State Line's boundary and the 1,752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at State Line's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of State Linelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so State Line's 1,752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among State Line's 1,752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of State Line you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,752 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 State Line-wide figureread your own land →