Strausstown, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Strausstown, 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 Strausstown 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 Strausstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Strausstown — the short answer
Strausstown, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 137 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 137 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 Strausstown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strausstown's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strausstown
Each reading below is measured for Strausstown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStrausstown runs about 208 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
MeasuredStrausstown 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 Strausstown is in
Strausstown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Strausstown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berks County.
What Grows in Strausstown
Every plant below cleared Strausstown's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strausstown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Strausstown
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Strausstown, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Strausstown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strausstown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SECHLERS POULTRY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- POST PRECISION CASTINGS INCToxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- POST PRECISION CASTINGS INCBrownfields · 250 ft
- POST PRECISION CASTINGS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- POWER GAS & DIESELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ANTHONYS FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BERKS CNTY MAINT FAC STRAUSSTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HIMMELBERGER AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DUTCH KITCHEN MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LEHMAN FARMSCAFO · 0.8 mi
- UPPER TULPEHOCKEN TWP BERKS CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NEIL L. MARTIN CAFOCAFO · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strausstown'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 Strausstown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strausstown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strausstown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strausstown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Strausstown — CAFO (51 sites) and Nitrate (130 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Strausstown
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 Strausstown average
Your land is one point inside Strausstown
Everything above resolves to Strausstown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 137 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 Strausstown Average
Strausstown Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Strausstown
- ●One soil character for all of Strausstown
- ●Frost dates read at Strausstown's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strausstown's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strausstown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strausstown, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strausstown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strausstown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strausstown average
How we know this about Strausstown
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 Strausstown’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 Strausstown
When does frost risk typically end in Strausstown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strausstown typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Strausstown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strausstown typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strausstown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strausstown sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 16, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strausstown?
The federal record around Strausstown is a meaningful one — 465 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Strausstown?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strausstown's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strausstown'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 Strausstown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Strausstown's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 137 acres it covers and 465 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strausstown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Strausstown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 30 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 465 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strausstown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strausstown's boundary and the 137 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strausstown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Strausstownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strausstown's 137 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berks County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berks 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 Berks County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strausstown's 137 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strausstown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 137 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Strausstown-wide figureread your own land →
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