Sykesville, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sykesville, 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 Sykesville 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 Sykesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sykesville — the short answer
Sykesville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Sykesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sykesville's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sykesville
Each reading below is measured for Sykesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSykesville runs about 178 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
MeasuredSykesville 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 Sykesville is in
Sykesville sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sykesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Sykesville
Every plant below cleared Sykesville's own zone 6a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sykesville?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Sykesville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Sykesville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sykesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sykesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JE 404Nitrate · 1100 ft
- JE 14Nitrate · 1600 ft
- PETER KENNIS DBA KENING TRANSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CORNER ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SYMMCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SYMMCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SYMMCO INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SYKESVILLE BULK PLTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NUPP PRINTINGBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- MURPHYS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JE 405Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- CF 106Nitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sykesville'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 Sykesville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sykesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sykesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sykesville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Sykesville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Sykesville
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 Sykesville average
Your land is one point inside Sykesville
Everything above resolves to Sykesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sykesville Average
Sykesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sykesville
- ●One soil character for all of Sykesville
- ●Frost dates read at Sykesville's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sykesville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sykesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sykesville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sykesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sykesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sykesville average
How we know this about Sykesville
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 Sykesville’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 Sykesville
When does frost risk typically end in Sykesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sykesville typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Sykesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sykesville typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sykesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sykesville sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 8, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sykesville?
The federal record around Sykesville is a meaningful one — 310 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Nitrate 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 Sykesville?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sykesville's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sykesville'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 Sykesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sykesville's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,013 acres it covers and 310 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sykesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sykesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 22 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 310 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sykesville, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sykesville's boundary and the 1,013 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sykesville's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sykesvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sykesville's 1,013 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sykesville's 1,013 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sykesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,013 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sykesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides