North Adams, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
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.
Even in North Adams, 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 North Adams 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 North Adams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Adams — the short answer
North Adams, Massachusetts: USDA zone 5b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 13K 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 5b is North Adams's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Adams's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Adams
Each reading below is measured for North Adams itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Adams runs about 172 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
MeasuredNorth Adams 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 North Adams is in
North Adams sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at North Adams's own centroid rather than borrowed from Berkshire County.
What Grows in North Adams
Every plant below cleared North Adams's own zone 5b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Adams?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 — 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 North Adams
Survey cells within 31 miles of North Adams checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Adams
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Adams. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #5709Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- CURRAN HIGHWAY PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY STORE 1729Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ENGLANDER COACH LINES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ENGLANDER COACH LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HOLLAND COMPANY GARAGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BERKSHIRE GAS COMPANYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PLEASANT STREET AUTO BODY AND REPAIR DBA HAMPSHIRE TOWINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MA-NOW 72Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MA-NOW 56Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- BERKSHIRE GAS CO PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DEANS QUALITY AUTO & TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Adams'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 North Adams.
Total Sites
346
within ~10 miles of North Adams
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Adams
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Adams
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Adams, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Adams — Superfund (8 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in North Adams
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 North Adams average
Your land is one point inside North Adams
Everything above resolves to North Adams as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 North Adams Average
North Adams Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across North Adams
- ●One soil character for all of North Adams
- ●Frost dates read at North Adams's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Adams's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Adams
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Adams, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Adams averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Adams — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Adams average
How we know this about North Adams
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 North Adams’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 North Adams
When does frost risk typically end in North Adams?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Adams 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.
When is the first frost in North Adams?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Adams typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Adams?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Adams sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 4, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Adams?
The federal record around North Adams is a meaningful one — 346 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (140), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 North Adams?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Adams's scale — its 5b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Adams'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 North Adams’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Adams's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,022 acres it covers and 346 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Adams's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Adams's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 18 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 346 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Adams, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Adams's boundary and the 13,022 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Adams's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around North Adams checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Adams's 13,022 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Berkshire County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Berkshire 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 Berkshire County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Adams's 13,022 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Adams you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,022 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 North Adams-wide figureread your own land →
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