Wrightsville, Pennsylvania, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wrightsville, 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 Wrightsville 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 Wrightsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wrightsville — the short answer
Wrightsville, Pennsylvania: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 419 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 419 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 7a is Wrightsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wrightsville's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wrightsville
Each reading below is measured for Wrightsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWrightsville runs about 226 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
MeasuredWrightsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Wrightsville is in
Wrightsville sits in the Northern Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wrightsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from York County.
What Grows in Wrightsville
Every plant below cleared Wrightsville's own zone 7a and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Pennsylvania profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wrightsville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wrightsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Wrightsville, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wrightsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wrightsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WRIGHTSVILLE ELEM SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- TURKEY HILL 36Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- YORK CNTY MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DONSCO INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DONSCO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- HIGHWAY MATERIALS INC - WRIGHTSVILLEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- ELEC PLATERS OF YORKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ELECTRO-PLATERS OF YORK INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ELECTRO-PLATERS OF YORK INCToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- WRIGHTSVILLE SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WRIGHTSVILLE BORO WWTP & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wrightsville'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 Wrightsville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wrightsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wrightsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wrightsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wrightsville — CAFO (53 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (112 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Wrightsville
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 Wrightsville average
Your land is one point inside Wrightsville
Everything above resolves to Wrightsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 419 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 Wrightsville Average
Wrightsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Wrightsville
- ●One soil character for all of Wrightsville
- ●Frost dates read at Wrightsville's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wrightsville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wrightsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wrightsville, Pennsylvania — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wrightsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wrightsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wrightsville average
How we know this about Wrightsville
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 Wrightsville’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 Wrightsville
When does frost risk typically end in Wrightsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wrightsville typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Wrightsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wrightsville typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wrightsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wrightsville sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 28, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wrightsville?
The federal record around Wrightsville runs heavier than most — 1,317 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (630), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wrightsville?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wrightsville's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wrightsville'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 Wrightsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wrightsville's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 419 acres it covers and 1,317 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wrightsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wrightsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 11 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,317 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wrightsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wrightsville's boundary and the 419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wrightsville's own centroid, the Northern PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wrightsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wrightsville's 419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom York County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom York 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 York County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wrightsville's 419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wrightsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 419 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 Wrightsville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Pennsylvania
Wider growing context
What grows across PennsylvaniaWrightsville sits outside our named growing regions, so Pennsylvania as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides