Union Dale, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Union Dale, 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 Dale 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 Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union Dale — the short answer
Union Dale, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 5b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Union Dale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union Dale's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union Dale
Each reading below is measured for Union Dale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnion Dale runs about 165 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 Dale 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 Union Dale is in
Union Dale sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union Dale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Susquehanna County.
What Grows in Union Dale
Every plant below cleared Union Dale's own zone 5b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union Dale?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Union Dale
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Union Dale, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Union Dale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union Dale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AVP RCAG WILLISBAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ALLEN SVC STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HERRICK TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KORTYS COLLISION & AUTO SVCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- SQ 239Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- M DURKO BUS SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HOWELLS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ARLOS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WN 314Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- BROWNS COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- BELMONT CORNERS FIRE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- KW OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union Dale'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 Dale.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Union Dale
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union Dale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union Dale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union Dale, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Union Dale. 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 Union Dale
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 Dale average
Your land is one point inside Union Dale
Everything above resolves to Union Dale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dale Average
Union Dale Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Union Dale
- ●One soil character for all of Union Dale
- ●Frost dates read at Union Dale's scale: May 3 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union Dale's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union Dale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union Dale, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union Dale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union Dale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Dale average
How we know this about Union Dale
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 Dale’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 Dale
When does frost risk typically end in Union Dale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union Dale typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Union Dale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union Dale typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union Dale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union Dale sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 1, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union Dale?
The federal record around Union Dale shows 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), 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 Union Dale?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union Dale's scale — its 5b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union Dale'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 Dale’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Union Dale's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,540 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union Dale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Union Dale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 15 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union Dale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union Dale's boundary and the 1,540 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union Dale's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Union Dalelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union Dale's 1,540 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Susquehanna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Susquehanna 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 Susquehanna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union Dale's 1,540 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union Dale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,540 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 Union Dale-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaUnion Dale sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides