Belmont, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belmont, 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 Belmont 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 Belmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Belmont — the short answer
Belmont, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 637 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 637 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 Belmont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belmont's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belmont
Each reading below is measured for Belmont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelmont runs about 159 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
MeasuredBelmont 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 Belmont is in
Belmont sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Belmont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegany County.
What Grows in Belmont
Every plant below cleared Belmont's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belmont?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Belmont
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from Belmont, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Belmont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belmont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALLEY VIEW DAIRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FELIX MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1014990Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1061660Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1014960Brownfields · 1800 ft
- HANSON FARMS BELMONT LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SUBURBAN PROPANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TOWN OF AMITY HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CROSBY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BELMONT SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AG 155Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AG 156Nitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belmont'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 Belmont.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belmont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belmont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belmont, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Belmont — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Belmont
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 Belmont average
Your land is one point inside Belmont
Everything above resolves to Belmont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 637 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 Belmont Average
Belmont Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Belmont
- ●One soil character for all of Belmont
- ●Frost dates read at Belmont's scale: May 7 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belmont's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belmont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belmont, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belmont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belmont average
How we know this about Belmont
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 Belmont’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 Belmont
When does frost risk typically end in Belmont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belmont typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Belmont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belmont typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belmont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belmont sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 29, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belmont?
The federal record around Belmont is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Belmont?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Belmont's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belmont'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 Belmont’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Belmont's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 637 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belmont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belmont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 13 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belmont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belmont's boundary and the 637 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belmont's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Belmontlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belmont's 637 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 Belmont's 637 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belmont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 637 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Belmont-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkBelmont sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides