Vail, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vail, 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 Vail 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 Vail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vail — the short answer
Vail, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 98 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 98 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 6b is Vail's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vail's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vail
Each reading below is measured for Vail itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVail runs about 202 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVail sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Vail is in
Vail sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vail's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blair County.
What Grows in Vail
Every plant below cleared Vail's own zone 6b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vail?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Vail
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Vail, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vail
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vail. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAY BURIAL VAULTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TYRONE SUB DIST OFCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORT DEARBORN CO/TYRONEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FORT DEARBORN CO/TYRONEToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- WR GRACE & CO CONN/TYRONEToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- WR GRACE & CO CONN/TYRONEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MILLER PARTS & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- IRVIN TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HU 407Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- FED CARBIDE/BALD EAGLE PLTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CHICAGO RIVET & MACH/TYRONE PLTToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- CHICAGO RIVET & MACH/TYRONE PLTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vail'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 Vail.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Vail
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vail
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vail
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vail, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vail — CAFO (3 sites) and Mining (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Vail
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 Vail average
Your land is one point inside Vail
Everything above resolves to Vail as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 98 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 Vail Average
Vail Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vail
- ●One soil character for all of Vail
- ●Frost dates read at Vail's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vail's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vail
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vail, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vail averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vail average
How we know this about Vail
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 Vail’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 Vail
When does frost risk typically end in Vail?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vail typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Vail?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vail 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 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vail?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vail sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 17, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vail?
The federal record around Vail is a meaningful one — 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Vail?
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 Vail's scale — its 6b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vail'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 Vail’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vail's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 98 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vail's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vail's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 31 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vail, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vail's boundary and the 98 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vail's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vaillydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vail's 98 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blair 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 Blair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vail's 98 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vail you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 98 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Vail-wide figureread your own land →
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