Tioga, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tioga, 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 Tioga 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 Tioga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tioga — the short answer
Tioga, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 297 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 297 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 Tioga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tioga's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tioga
Each reading below is measured for Tioga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTioga runs about 173 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
MeasuredTioga 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 Tioga is in
Tioga sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Tioga's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tioga County.
What Grows in Tioga
Every plant below cleared Tioga's own zone 6a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tioga?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Tioga
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Tioga, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tioga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tioga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ENGLISH CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- TIOGA HAMMOND LAKE PROJUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- COWANESQUE LAKE PROJUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PUMP N PANTRY 015Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TIOGA TWP TIOGA CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TIOGA VALLEY EXXON 33Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TYOGA CONTAINER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MAIN STREET GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TI 103Nitrate · 2100 ft
- TI 449Nitrate · 2300 ft
- TI 448Nitrate · 2400 ft
- TI 102Nitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tioga'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 Tioga.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tioga
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tioga, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Tioga. 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 Tioga
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 Tioga average
Your land is one point inside Tioga
Everything above resolves to Tioga as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 297 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 Tioga Average
Tioga Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tioga
- ●One soil character for all of Tioga
- ●Frost dates read at Tioga's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tioga's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tioga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tioga, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tioga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tioga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tioga average
How we know this about Tioga
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 Tioga’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 Tioga
When does frost risk typically end in Tioga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tioga typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Tioga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tioga typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tioga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tioga sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 6, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tioga?
The federal record around Tioga shows 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tioga?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tioga's scale — its 6a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tioga'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 Tioga’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tioga's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 297 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tioga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tioga's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 20 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tioga, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tioga's boundary and the 297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tioga's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tiogalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tioga's 297 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tioga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tioga 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 Tioga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tioga's 297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tioga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 297 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 Tioga-wide figureread your own land →