Tionesta, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tionesta, 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 Tionesta 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 Tionesta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tionesta — the short answer
Tionesta, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 880 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 880 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 Tionesta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tionesta's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tionesta
Each reading below is measured for Tionesta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTionesta runs about 185 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
MeasuredTionesta 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 Tionesta is in
Tionesta sits in the North Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Tionesta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Forest County.
What Grows in Tionesta
Every plant below cleared Tionesta's own zone 6a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tionesta?
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 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 29 — 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 Tionesta
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Tionesta, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tionesta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tionesta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIONESTA MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KAPUTA MOTOR SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HALLERS SPORTING GOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TIONESTA LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SHEA AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- WILLARD A SCHRADERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KINSLEY TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TIONESTA GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WEST FOREST HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TIONESTA BOROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SIX SVC PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TIONESTA FISH CULTURE STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tionesta'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 Tionesta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tionesta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tionesta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tionesta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tionesta — Nitrate (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (38 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Tionesta
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 Tionesta average
Your land is one point inside Tionesta
Everything above resolves to Tionesta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 880 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 Tionesta Average
Tionesta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tionesta
- ●One soil character for all of Tionesta
- ●Frost dates read at Tionesta's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tionesta's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tionesta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tionesta, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tionesta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tionesta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tionesta average
How we know this about Tionesta
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 Tionesta’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 Tionesta
When does frost risk typically end in Tionesta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tionesta 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 Tionesta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tionesta typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tionesta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tionesta sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 15, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tionesta?
The federal record around Tionesta shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Tionesta?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tionesta's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tionesta'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 Tionesta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tionesta's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 880 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tionesta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tionesta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 29 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tionesta, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tionesta's boundary and the 880 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tionesta's own centroid, the North Central AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Tionestalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tionesta's 880 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Forest County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Forest 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 Forest County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tionesta's 880 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tionesta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 880 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Tionesta-wide figureread your own land →
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