Union City, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Union City, 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 Union City 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 Union City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Union City — the short answer
Union City, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- 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 Union City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union City's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union City
Each reading below is measured for Union City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnion City runs about 188 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
MeasuredUnion City 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 Union City is in
Union City sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Union City
Every plant below cleared Union City's own zone 6a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Union City
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Union City, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Union City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UN CITY CHAIR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- NORAM SEATING/UNION CITYToxics Release Inventory · 300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 2970Brownfields · 700 ft
- MANGELS CONSUMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 1810007AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JIM THOMAS CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RIMPAS PENNZOILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- UNION CITY BORO ERIE CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COUNTRY FAIR 95Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RUSSELL STDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ETHAN ALLEN INC CHER/UNION CITY PLTToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- GENERAL METAL CLEANING INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union City'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 Union City.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Union City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Union City — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Union City
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 Union City average
Your land is one point inside Union City
Everything above resolves to Union City 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 Union City Average
Union City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Union City
- ●One soil character for all of Union City
- ●Frost dates read at Union City's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union City, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union City average
How we know this about Union City
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 Union City’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 Union City
When does frost risk typically end in Union City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union City typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Union City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union City typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union City sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 17, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union City?
The federal record around Union City shows 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), 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 Union City?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union City's scale — its 6a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union City'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 Union City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Union City's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,171 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Union City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 31 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union City's boundary and the 1,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union City's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Union Citylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union City's 1,171 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union City's 1,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,171 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 Union City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Growing region
Nearby growing guides