Venango, 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.
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 Venango, 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 Venango 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 Venango — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Venango — the short answer
Venango, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 175 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 175 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 Venango's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Venango's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Venango
Each reading below is measured for Venango itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVenango runs about 193 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
MeasuredVenango 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 Venango is in
Venango sits in the Erie Drift Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Venango's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crawford County.
What Grows in Venango
Every plant below cleared Venango's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Venango?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Venango
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Venango, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Venango
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Venango. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MANSFIELD SANITATION SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- VENANGO TWP BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KNUTH KUSTOM COMPLEXSuperfund · 2.0 mi
- NORTHWESTERN RECAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CAMBRIDGE TWP CRAWFORD CNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CW 2412Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS JSHSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- CAMBRIDGE SPRINGS JR SR HIGH SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- RUFUS S COPELANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MITCHELL TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MULTI TOOL INC/SAEGERTOWNBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- HAEMER TOLL & DIE INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Venango'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 Venango.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Venango
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Venango
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Venango, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Venango. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Venango
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 Venango average
Your land is one point inside Venango
Everything above resolves to Venango as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 175 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 Venango Average
Venango Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Venango
- ●One soil character for all of Venango
- ●Frost dates read at Venango's scale: Apr 24 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Venango's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Venango
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Venango, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Venango averages can't show:
We read public map data around Venango — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Venango average
How we know this about Venango
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 Venango’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 Venango
When does frost risk typically end in Venango?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Venango typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Venango?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Venango typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Venango?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Venango sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 20, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Venango?
The federal record around Venango is a meaningful one — 256 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), the nearest Brownfields 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 Venango?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Venango's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Venango'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 Venango’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Venango's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 175 acres it covers and 256 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Venango's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Venango's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Nov 3 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 256 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Venango, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Venango's boundary and the 175 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Venango's own centroid, the Erie Drift PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Venangolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Venango's 175 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crawford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crawford 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 Crawford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Venango's 175 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Venango you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 175 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Venango-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaVenango sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides