Berkshire County, in Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
You’re in The Berkshires
Western Massachusetts' cool, hilly uplands — rocky glacial soils, cold winters, and the state's shortest season. Apples, maples, and cold-hardy market gardens are the crops that have always made sense on this high ground.
Berkshire County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Berkshire County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Berkshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Berkshire County — the short answer
Berkshire County, Massachusetts: USDA zone 5b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 593K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 593K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5b is Berkshire County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berkshire County's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Berkshire County
Across a year, Berkshire County accumulates about 1,781 growing degree days above 50°F, about 745 fewer than the middle Massachusetts county — no other Massachusetts county banks fewer. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Berkshire County
Across Berkshire County, the ground is predominantly Spodosols, where Tunbridge, Lyman, and Peru are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–5.9, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Spodosols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Berkshire County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Berkshire County as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 23% moderately well drained, 12% poorly drained.
Tunbridge is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Lyman (13%) and Peru (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Berkshire County
Each reading below is measured for Berkshire County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Berkshire County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Berkshire County runs about pH 4.8–5.9, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBerkshire County runs about 171 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
MeasuredBerkshire County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Berkshire County is in
Berkshire County sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Berkshire County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Berkshire County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 171-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile.
Is it too late to plant in Berkshire County?
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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Berkshire County
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Berkshire County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle18 documented records
- monarch butterfly42 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Berkshire County
USGS estimates 2,588 lb of Glyphosate on Berkshire County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,290 lb) and Atrazine (1,509 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Berkshire County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Berkshire County — 1,319 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Berkshire County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Berkshire County
Closest first, across Berkshire County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASELLA WASTE LENOX TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- LENOX LUMBERBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 80Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 86Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 89Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 82Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 84Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 85Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 81Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 78Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 83Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- MA-LOW 87Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berkshire County'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 Berkshire County.
Sources Checked
across Berkshire County
Severity Distribution
across Berkshire County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berkshire County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 18 sites across Berkshire County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Berkshire County
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 Berkshire County average
Your land is one point inside Berkshire County
Everything above resolves to Berkshire County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 593K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Berkshire County Average
Berkshire County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Berkshire County
- ●One soil character for all of Berkshire County
- ●Frost dates read at Berkshire County's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berkshire County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Berkshire County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berkshire County, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berkshire County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berkshire County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berkshire County average
How we know this about Berkshire County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Berkshire County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Berkshire County
When does frost risk typically end in Berkshire County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berkshire County typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
How long is the growing season in Berkshire County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berkshire County sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 3, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berkshire County?
The federal record around Berkshire County is a meaningful one — 1,319 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (580), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Berkshire County's scale — its 5b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berkshire County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Massachusetts's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Berkshire County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Berkshire County's own scale — its own ~171-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,319 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berkshire County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Berkshire County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Berkshire CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,319 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Berkshire County's boundary and the 593,199 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Berkshire County sitting wholly inside the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Berkshire County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Berkshire County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Massachusetts grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Massachusetts
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Berkshire County — the ~171 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berkshire County's 593,199 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,319 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Berkshire Countyread your own land →