Sweden Valley, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sweden Valley, 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 Sweden Valley 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 Sweden Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sweden Valley — the short answer
Sweden Valley, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 659 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 659 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 5b is Sweden Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sweden Valley's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sweden Valley
Each reading below is measured for Sweden Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSweden Valley runs about 155 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
MeasuredSweden Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Sweden Valley is in
Sweden Valley sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Sweden Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Potter County.
What Grows in Sweden Valley
Every plant below cleared Sweden Valley's own zone 5b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sweden Valley?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Sweden Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Sweden Valley, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sweden Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sweden Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MURPHYS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MORGAN AM&T COUDERSPORT SITEToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- MORGAN AM&T COUDERSPORT SITEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- PO 77Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- COUDERSPORT BORO AUTHORITYPFAS · 1.1 mi
- PO 305Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- POTATO CITY COUNTRY INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CHARLES COLE MEM HOSPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- KWIK FILL M0151 183Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- CHUCKS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CHARLES COLE MEM HOSPBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- PO 315Nitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sweden Valley'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 Sweden Valley.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Sweden Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sweden Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sweden Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sweden Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Sweden Valley. 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 Sweden Valley
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 Sweden Valley average
Your land is one point inside Sweden Valley
Everything above resolves to Sweden Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 659 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 Sweden Valley Average
Sweden Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sweden Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Sweden Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Sweden Valley's scale: May 8 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sweden Valley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sweden Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sweden Valley, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sweden Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sweden Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sweden Valley average
How we know this about Sweden Valley
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 Sweden Valley’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 Sweden Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Sweden Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sweden Valley typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Sweden Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sweden Valley typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sweden Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sweden Valley sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 26, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sweden Valley?
The federal record around Sweden Valley shows 105 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), 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 Sweden Valley?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sweden Valley's scale — its 5b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sweden Valley'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 Sweden Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sweden Valley's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 659 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sweden Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sweden Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 10 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sweden Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sweden Valley's boundary and the 659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sweden Valley's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sweden Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sweden Valley's 659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Potter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Potter 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 Potter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sweden Valley's 659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sweden Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 659 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 Sweden Valley-wide figureread your own land →