Upton, Massachusetts, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
You’re in Central Massachusetts
The inland heart of the state — rolling upland, cooler nights, and a shorter season than the coast. Stony glacial soils that reward the gardener who feeds and drains them.
Even in Upton, 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 Upton 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 Upton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Upton — the short answer
Upton, Massachusetts: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- 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 6b is Upton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upton's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Upton
Each reading below is measured for Upton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUpton runs about 198 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
MeasuredUpton sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Upton is in
Upton sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Upton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Worcester County.
What Grows in Upton
Every plant below cleared Upton's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Massachusetts profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Upton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Upton
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Upton, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Upton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Upton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UPTON COLLISIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MIKE'S AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- UPTON DPW WATER/WASTEWATER DIVISIONPFAS · 2100 ft
- GEORGE J SUMMERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GEORGE J SUMMERS TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- THOMPSON OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- THOMPSON OIL CO INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MA0068Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LAMBERT AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- A L PRIME ENERGY 131 UptonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- A.L. PRIME #131Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- GASCO EXPRESS FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upton'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 Upton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Upton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Upton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Upton — Brownfields (1,151 sites) and PFAS (18 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Upton
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 Upton average
Your land is one point inside Upton
Everything above resolves to Upton 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 Upton Average
Upton Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Upton
- ●One soil character for all of Upton
- ●Frost dates read at Upton's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upton's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Upton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upton, Massachusetts — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upton average
How we know this about Upton
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 Upton’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 Upton
When does frost risk typically end in Upton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upton typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Upton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Upton typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Upton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upton sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upton?
The federal record around Upton runs heavier than most — 1,819 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,151), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Upton?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Upton's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upton'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 Upton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Upton's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,580 acres it covers and 1,819 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Upton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,819 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Upton, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Upton's boundary and the 1,580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Upton's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Uptonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Upton's 1,580 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Worcester County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Worcester 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 Worcester County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Upton's 1,580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Upton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,580 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Upton-wide figureread your own land →
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