Pittsford, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pittsford, 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 Pittsford 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 Pittsford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pittsford — the short answer
Pittsford, Michigan: USDA zone 6a, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Pittsford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pittsford's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pittsford
Each reading below is measured for Pittsford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPittsford runs about 193 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
MeasuredPittsford 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 Pittsford is in
Pittsford sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pittsford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hillsdale County is mostly Southern Michigan/Northern Indiana Drift Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pittsford
Every plant below cleared Pittsford's own zone 6a and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pittsford?
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 26 — 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 Pittsford
Survey cells within 31 miles of Pittsford checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 44 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Pittsford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pittsford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PITTSFORD COLLISIONBrownfields · 200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORESBrownfields · 250 ft
- Pittsford Area SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Pittsford Gas & TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Pittsford Block, IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Dell MaxsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 07S 02W 10BDDD01 HILLSDALE CO PITTSFORDNitrate · 2.8 mi
- 07S 02W 15BCBA01 HILLSDALE CO OSSEONitrate · 2.8 mi
- Vernon CrandallUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Bud's Sharpening ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Economy ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- AG059-11Nitrate · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pittsford'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 Pittsford.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Pittsford
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pittsford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pittsford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Pittsford
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 Pittsford average
Your land is one point inside Pittsford
Everything above resolves to Pittsford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Pittsford Average
Pittsford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pittsford
- ●One soil character for all of Pittsford
- ●Frost dates read at Pittsford's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pittsford's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pittsford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pittsford, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pittsford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pittsford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pittsford average
How we know this about Pittsford
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 Pittsford’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 Pittsford
When does frost risk typically end in Pittsford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsford 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 Pittsford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pittsford 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 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pittsford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pittsford sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 12, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pittsford?
The federal record around Pittsford is a meaningful one — 176 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Brownfields 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 Pittsford?
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 Pittsford's scale — its 6a band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pittsford'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 Pittsford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Pittsford's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,220 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pittsford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pittsford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 26 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pittsford, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pittsford's boundary and the 1,220 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pittsford sits in the Eastern Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Pittsford 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 Pittsford's 1,220 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsdale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsdale County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Hillsdale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pittsford's 1,220 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pittsford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,220 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Pittsford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Michigan
Wider growing context
What grows across MichiganPittsford sits outside our named growing regions, so Michigan as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides