Chicopee, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Chicopee, 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 Chicopee 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 Chicopee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chicopee — the short answer
Chicopee, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- 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 6a is Chicopee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chicopee's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chicopee
Each reading below is measured for Chicopee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChicopee runs about 193 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
MeasuredChicopee sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Chicopee is in
Chicopee sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chicopee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampden County.
What Grows in Chicopee
Every plant below cleared Chicopee's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chicopee?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Chicopee
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Chicopee, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chicopee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chicopee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLAIRS JOHN AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WALDORF CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- INTERSTATE TOWING INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- WIENER BOB TIRE CO INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGE ED0010Brownfields · 1800 ft
- BJ'S WHOLESALE CLUBBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BIG Y FOODS INC 52Brownfields · 1800 ft
- ROCK-TENN CONVERTING COToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- WE 77 CHAMPION LLC C/O WINSTANLEY ENTERPRISES LLCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE 2610Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CURRY HONDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RALLYE AUTOMOTIVE LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chicopee'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 Chicopee.
Total Sites
3,039
within ~10 miles of Chicopee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chicopee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chicopee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chicopee, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,747 sites within ~10 miles of Chicopee. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Chicopee
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 Chicopee average
Your land is one point inside Chicopee
Everything above resolves to Chicopee 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 Chicopee Average
Chicopee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chicopee
- ●One soil character for all of Chicopee
- ●Frost dates read at Chicopee's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chicopee's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chicopee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chicopee, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chicopee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chicopee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chicopee average
How we know this about Chicopee
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 Chicopee’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 Chicopee
When does frost risk typically end in Chicopee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chicopee typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Chicopee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chicopee typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chicopee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chicopee sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 12, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chicopee?
The federal record around Chicopee is a meaningful one — 3,039 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,747), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Chicopee?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chicopee's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chicopee'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 Chicopee’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chicopee's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,660 acres it covers and 3,039 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chicopee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chicopee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 26 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,039 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chicopee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chicopee's boundary and the 14,660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chicopee's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chicopeelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chicopee's 14,660 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 Chicopee's 14,660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chicopee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Chicopee-wide figureread your own land →
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