Huntington, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its 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 Huntington, 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 Huntington 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 Huntington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Huntington — the short answer
Huntington, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Huntington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Huntington's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Huntington
Each reading below is measured for Huntington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHuntington runs about 182 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
MeasuredHuntington 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 Huntington is in
Huntington sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Huntington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hampshire County.
What Grows in Huntington
Every plant below cleared Huntington's own zone 6a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Huntington?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Huntington
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Huntington, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Huntington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Huntington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTERN MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COMPANYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BELL ATLANTIC (8265-06)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SAINT MARTIN'S AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- J&R SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BTA AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TEXON WASTE DISPOSALSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- HUNTINGTON PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TOWN OF HUNTINGTON HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- GATEWAY REGIONAL HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- MAXWELL K FISKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Huntington'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 Huntington.
Total Sites
208
within ~10 miles of Huntington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Huntington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Huntington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Huntington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Huntington — PFAS (3 sites) and Brownfields (103 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Huntington
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 Huntington average
Your land is one point inside Huntington
Everything above resolves to Huntington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Huntington Average
Huntington Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Huntington
- ●One soil character for all of Huntington
- ●Frost dates read at Huntington's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Huntington's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Huntington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Huntington, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Huntington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Huntington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Huntington average
How we know this about Huntington
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 Huntington’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 Huntington
When does frost risk typically end in Huntington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Huntington typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Huntington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Huntington typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Huntington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Huntington sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 6, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Huntington?
The federal record around Huntington is a meaningful one — 208 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Huntington?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Huntington's scale — its 6a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Huntington'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 Huntington’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Huntington's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,963 acres it covers and 208 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Huntington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Huntington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 20 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 208 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Huntington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Huntington's boundary and the 2,963 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Huntington's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Huntingtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Huntington's 2,963 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hampshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hampshire 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 Hampshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Huntington's 2,963 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Huntington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,963 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Huntington-wide figureread your own land →
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