Holyoke, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
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 Holyoke, 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 Holyoke 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 Holyoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Holyoke — the short answer
Holyoke, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 14K 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Holyoke's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holyoke's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holyoke
Each reading below is measured for Holyoke itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHolyoke runs about 190 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
MeasuredHolyoke 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 Holyoke is in
Holyoke sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Holyoke's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampden County.
What Grows in Holyoke
Every plant below cleared Holyoke's own zone 6a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holyoke?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Holyoke
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Holyoke, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Holyoke
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holyoke. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOLYOKE WATER WORKSPFAS · 25 ft
- LT. CLAYRE P. SULLIVAN SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- JAMES A CURRAN GENERAL CONTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JIM'S AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIGHLAND ENGINE HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- REARDON'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALGREENS 04967Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- FORMER JOHN LYNCH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CRABTREES SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- REARDONS GARAGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CRABTREE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holyoke'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 Holyoke.
Total Sites
2,991
within ~10 miles of Holyoke
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holyoke
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holyoke
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holyoke, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,716 sites within ~10 miles of Holyoke. 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 Holyoke
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 Holyoke average
Your land is one point inside Holyoke
Everything above resolves to Holyoke as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Holyoke Average
Holyoke Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Holyoke
- ●One soil character for all of Holyoke
- ●Frost dates read at Holyoke's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holyoke's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holyoke
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holyoke, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holyoke averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holyoke — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holyoke average
How we know this about Holyoke
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 Holyoke’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 Holyoke
When does frost risk typically end in Holyoke?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holyoke 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 Holyoke?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holyoke typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holyoke?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holyoke sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 9, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holyoke?
The federal record around Holyoke is a meaningful one — 2,991 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,716), 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 Holyoke?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holyoke's scale — its 6a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holyoke'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 Holyoke’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Holyoke's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,548 acres it covers and 2,991 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holyoke's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Holyoke's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 23 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,991 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holyoke, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holyoke's boundary and the 13,548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holyoke's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Holyokelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holyoke's 13,548 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 Holyoke's 13,548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holyoke you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,548 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 Holyoke-wide figureread your own land →
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