South Deerfield, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own 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 South Deerfield, 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 South Deerfield 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 South Deerfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Deerfield — the short answer
South Deerfield, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 South Deerfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Deerfield's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Deerfield
Each reading below is measured for South Deerfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Deerfield runs about 177 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
MeasuredSouth Deerfield 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 South Deerfield is in
South Deerfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Deerfield's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in South Deerfield
Every plant below cleared South Deerfield's own zone 6a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Deerfield?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 South Deerfield
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from South Deerfield, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near South Deerfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Deerfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GATES RESIDENCEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FRONTIER REGIONAL SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HARDIGG INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- PELICAN PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ORAFOL AMERICAS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PILOT PRECISION PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- FISHERS GARAGE INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TELAXIS COMMUNICATIONSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TOWN OF DEERFIELDBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DEERFIELD HIGHWAY DEPT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FISHER'S GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VERIZON MASSACHUSETTS #827406Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Deerfield'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 South Deerfield.
Total Sites
721
within ~10 miles of South Deerfield
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Deerfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Deerfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Deerfield, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 360 sites within ~10 miles of South Deerfield. 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 South Deerfield
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 South Deerfield average
Your land is one point inside South Deerfield
Everything above resolves to South Deerfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 South Deerfield Average
South Deerfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across South Deerfield
- ●One soil character for all of South Deerfield
- ●Frost dates read at South Deerfield's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Deerfield's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Deerfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Deerfield, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Deerfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Deerfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Deerfield average
How we know this about South Deerfield
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 South Deerfield’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 South Deerfield
When does frost risk typically end in South Deerfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Deerfield typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in South Deerfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Deerfield typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Deerfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Deerfield sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 5, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Deerfield?
The federal record around South Deerfield runs heavier than most — 721 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (360), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in South Deerfield?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Deerfield's scale — its 6a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Deerfield'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 South Deerfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at South Deerfield's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,019 acres it covers and 721 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Deerfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Deerfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 19 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 721 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Deerfield, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Deerfield's boundary and the 2,019 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- South Deerfield sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of South Deerfieldlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Deerfield's 2,019 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Deerfield's 2,019 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Deerfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,019 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 South Deerfield-wide figureread your own land →
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