Wood, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Wood, 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 Wood 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 Wood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wood — the short answer
Wood, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 167 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 167 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 Wood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wood's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wood
Each reading below is measured for Wood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWood runs about 208 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
MeasuredWood 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 Wood is in
Wood sits in the Central Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wood's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bedford County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Wood
Every plant below cleared Wood's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wood?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Wood
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Wood, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SGL 121Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- HU 102Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE NO 10736Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- OUR PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BROAD TOP QUIK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HORTONS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HU 109Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- BD 374Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- SHEEDERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- SNYDER BUSINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- COOKS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MCDONALDS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wood'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 Wood.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Wood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wood, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Wood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Wood
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 Wood average
Your land is one point inside Wood
Everything above resolves to Wood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 167 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 Wood Average
Wood Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wood
- ●One soil character for all of Wood
- ●Frost dates read at Wood's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wood's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wood, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wood average
How we know this about Wood
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 Wood’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 Wood
When does frost risk typically end in Wood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wood typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Wood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wood typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wood sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 19, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wood?
The federal record around Wood is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Wood?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wood's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wood'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 Wood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wood's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 167 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 2 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wood's boundary and the 167 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wood sits in the Central Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Woodlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wood's 167 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bedford County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bedford 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 Bedford County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wood's 167 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 167 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Wood-wide figureread your own land →
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