Agawam, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
You’re in Pioneer Valley
The Connecticut River's broad valley floor — the richest farm ground in the state, deep alluvial soils and a warmer pocket than the hills on either side. Long a market-garden and tobacco valley; a forgiving place to grow.
Even in Agawam, 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 Agawam 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 Agawam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Agawam — the short answer
Agawam, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Agawam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Agawam's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Agawam
Each reading below is measured for Agawam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAgawam runs about 201 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
MeasuredAgawam 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 Agawam is in
Agawam sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Agawam's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampden County.
What Grows in Agawam
Every plant below cleared Agawam's own zone 6b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Agawam?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Agawam
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Agawam, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Agawam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Agawam Town. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VERMETTE AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- RIVER AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- KINSLEY TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LITRON INC.Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NEW ENGLAND AMMONIA SAFETY INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MILLENNIUM PRESSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- ATW TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2600 ft
- OMG INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- OMG INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- LITRON DIVISIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- LKQ AGAWAMBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MA-AFW 31 AGAWAM, MANitrate · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Agawam'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 Agawam.
Total Sites
3,056
within ~10 miles of Agawam Town
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Agawam Town
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Agawam Town
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Agawam, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,598 sites within ~10 miles of Agawam Town. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Agawam
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 Agawam average
Your land is one point inside Agawam
Everything above resolves to Agawam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 15K 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 city 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 Agawam Average
Agawam Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Agawam
- ●One soil character for all of Agawam
- ●Frost dates read at Agawam's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Agawam's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Agawam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Agawam, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Agawam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Agawam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Agawam average
How we know this about Agawam
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Agawam’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Agawam
When does frost risk typically end in Agawam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Agawam typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Agawam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Agawam typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Agawam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Agawam sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 14, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Agawam?
The federal record around Agawam is a meaningful one — 3,056 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,598), the nearest Brownfields 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 Agawam?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Agawam's scale — its 6b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Agawam'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 Agawam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Agawam's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,926 acres it covers and 3,056 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Agawam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Agawam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 28 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,056 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Agawam, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Agawam's boundary and the 14,926 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Agawam's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Agawamlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Agawam's 14,926 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampden County
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hampden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Agawam's 14,926 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Agawam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,926 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Agawam-wide figureread your own land →
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