Belfast, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Belfast, 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 Belfast 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 Belfast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belfast — the short answer
Belfast, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 991 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 991 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 Belfast's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belfast's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belfast
Each reading below is measured for Belfast itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelfast runs about 163 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
MeasuredBelfast 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 Belfast is in
Belfast sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belfast's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegany County.
What Grows in Belfast
Every plant below cleared Belfast's own zone 5b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belfast?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Belfast
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Belfast, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Belfast
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belfast. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELFAST CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- TOWN OF BELFASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BELFAST CENTRAL SCHOOLBrownfields · 550 ft
- AG1129Nitrate · 1400 ft
- HARRINGTON SHOPWISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BELFAST MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #11056Brownfields · 2200 ft
- AG 217Nitrate · 2300 ft
- AG 216Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- AG 257Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- AG 212Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- AG 211Nitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belfast'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 Belfast.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of Belfast
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belfast
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belfast
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belfast, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belfast — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (54 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Belfast
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 Belfast average
Your land is one point inside Belfast
Everything above resolves to Belfast as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 991 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 Belfast Average
Belfast Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Belfast
- ●One soil character for all of Belfast
- ●Frost dates read at Belfast's scale: May 5 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belfast's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belfast
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belfast, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belfast averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belfast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belfast average
How we know this about Belfast
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 Belfast’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 Belfast
When does frost risk typically end in Belfast?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belfast typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Belfast?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belfast typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belfast?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belfast sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 1, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belfast?
The federal record around Belfast shows 158 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Belfast?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belfast's scale — its 5b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belfast'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 Belfast’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Belfast's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 991 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belfast's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belfast's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 15 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belfast, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belfast's boundary and the 991 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belfast's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Belfastlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belfast's 991 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegany County
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Allegany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belfast's 991 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belfast you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 991 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Belfast-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkBelfast sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides