Storrs, Connecticut, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Storrs, 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 Storrs 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 Storrs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Storrs — the short answer
Storrs, Connecticut: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Storrs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Storrs's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Storrs
Each reading below is measured for Storrs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStorrs runs about 203 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
MeasuredStorrs 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 Storrs is in
Storrs sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Storrs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Capitol Planning Region.
What Grows in Storrs
Every plant below cleared Storrs's own zone 6b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Connecticut profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Storrs?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Storrs
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Storrs, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Storrs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Storrs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT - MAIN CAMPUSPFAS · 25 ft
- CTWC - NORTHERN REG-WESTERN SYSTEMPFAS · 25 ft
- UCONN BEACH HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- STORRS CENTRAL OFFICE (7461)Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #805Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- ADRIAN D ATKINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MARTY'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MARGARET ANTHONYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SPRING MANOR FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- FREELAND PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LOUIS DREYFUS ENERGY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MILTON C BEEBE & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Storrs'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 Storrs.
Total Sites
534
within ~10 miles of Storrs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Storrs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Storrs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Storrs, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Storrs. 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 Storrs
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 Storrs average
Your land is one point inside Storrs
Everything above resolves to Storrs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Storrs Average
Storrs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Storrs
- ●One soil character for all of Storrs
- ●Frost dates read at Storrs's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Storrs's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Storrs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Storrs, Connecticut — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Storrs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Storrs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Storrs average
How we know this about Storrs
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 Storrs’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 Storrs
When does frost risk typically end in Storrs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Storrs typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Storrs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Storrs typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Storrs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Storrs sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 15, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Storrs?
The federal record around Storrs is a meaningful one — 534 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Storrs?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Storrs's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Storrs'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 Storrs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Storrs's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,771 acres it covers and 534 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Storrs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Storrs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 29 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 534 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Storrs, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Storrs's boundary and the 4,771 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Storrs's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Storrslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Storrs's 4,771 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 Storrs's 4,771 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Storrs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,771 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Storrs-wide figureread your own land →