Callicoon, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Callicoon, 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 Callicoon 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 Callicoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Callicoon — the short answer
Callicoon, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 398 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 398 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 Callicoon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Callicoon's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Callicoon
Each reading below is measured for Callicoon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCallicoon runs about 174 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
MeasuredCallicoon 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 Callicoon is in
Callicoon sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Callicoon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Callicoon
Every plant below cleared Callicoon's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Callicoon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Callicoon
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Callicoon, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Callicoon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Callicoon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLEET BRANCH BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- C.E. MILLS CHEVROLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROCHE'S GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BENIZINA & MARKET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STAR MARKET - KOUNTRY KORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CATSKILL REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HOLY CROSS CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BUDDENHAGENS GARAGE INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- DELAWARE VALLEY JOB CORPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WN 338Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- WINDSOR SULLIVAN PROPERTY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- VAN ETTEN OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Callicoon'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 Callicoon.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Callicoon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Callicoon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Callicoon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Callicoon, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Callicoon — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (36 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 Callicoon
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 Callicoon average
Your land is one point inside Callicoon
Everything above resolves to Callicoon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 398 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 Callicoon Average
Callicoon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Callicoon
- ●One soil character for all of Callicoon
- ●Frost dates read at Callicoon's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Callicoon's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Callicoon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Callicoon, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Callicoon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Callicoon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Callicoon average
How we know this about Callicoon
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 Callicoon’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 Callicoon
When does frost risk typically end in Callicoon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Callicoon typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Callicoon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Callicoon typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Callicoon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Callicoon sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 4, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Callicoon?
The federal record around Callicoon shows 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), 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 Callicoon?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Callicoon's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Callicoon'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 Callicoon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Callicoon's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 398 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Callicoon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Callicoon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 18 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Callicoon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Callicoon's boundary and the 398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Callicoon's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Callicoonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Callicoon's 398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Callicoon's 398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Callicoon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 398 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 Callicoon-wide figureread your own land →
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