Collinsville, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Collinsville, 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 Collinsville 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 Collinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Collinsville — the short answer
Collinsville, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 6b is Collinsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Collinsville's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Collinsville
Each reading below is measured for Collinsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCollinsville runs about 197 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
MeasuredCollinsville 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 Collinsville is in
Collinsville sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Collinsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Capitol Planning Region.
What Grows in Collinsville
Every plant below cleared Collinsville's own zone 6b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Collinsville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Collinsville
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Collinsville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Collinsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Collinsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Lead MineMining · 1200 ft
- CT-CA 103Nitrate · 2400 ft
- Collinsville Water Treatmant FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWN OF CANTONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 105, 107, 109 MAIN STREET, COLLINSVILLE, CT LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Volunteer Fire CO. Collinsville StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COLLINSVILLE NEW ENGLAND PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHERRY BROOK SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CANTON PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TOWN LIBRARY AND COMMUNITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WPMCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MINER LUMBER COMPANY, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Collinsville'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 Collinsville.
Total Sites
1,030
within ~10 miles of Collinsville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Collinsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Collinsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Collinsville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Collinsville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Collinsville
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 Collinsville average
Your land is one point inside Collinsville
Everything above resolves to Collinsville 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 Collinsville Average
Collinsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Collinsville
- ●One soil character for all of Collinsville
- ●Frost dates read at Collinsville's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Collinsville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Collinsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Collinsville, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Collinsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Collinsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Collinsville average
How we know this about Collinsville
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 Collinsville’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 Collinsville
When does frost risk typically end in Collinsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Collinsville typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Collinsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Collinsville typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Collinsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Collinsville sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 13, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Collinsville?
The federal record around Collinsville is a meaningful one — 1,030 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (489), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 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 Collinsville?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Collinsville's scale — its 6b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Collinsville'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 Collinsville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Collinsville's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,006 acres it covers and 1,030 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Collinsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Collinsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 27 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,030 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Collinsville, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Collinsville's boundary and the 2,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Collinsville's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Collinsvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Collinsville's 2,006 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Capitol County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Capitol County
- The growing challenges every Connecticut grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Connecticut
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Capitol County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Collinsville's 2,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Collinsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,006 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.2 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 Collinsville-wide figureread your own land →