Chestertown, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Chestertown, 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 Chestertown 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 Chestertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chestertown — the short answer
Chestertown, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- 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 5a is Chestertown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chestertown's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chestertown
Each reading below is measured for Chestertown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChestertown runs about 168 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
MeasuredChestertown sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Chestertown is in
Chestertown sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Chestertown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Chestertown
Every plant below cleared Chestertown's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chestertown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Chestertown
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Chestertown, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chestertown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chestertown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DBA RITE AID #10718Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CROWN OIL #3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CTC OF NY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PANTHER MTN. INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TOWN OF CHESTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WR 85Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- WARREN COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WORKS BIN 3305180Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- NORTH WARREN CENTRAL SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PECKHAM MATERIALS CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- NORTH WARREN CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STEWART'S SHOPS #174Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CHURCH OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chestertown'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 Chestertown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chestertown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chestertown
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 Chestertown
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 Chestertown average
Your land is one point inside Chestertown
Everything above resolves to Chestertown 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 Chestertown Average
Chestertown Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chestertown
- ●One soil character for all of Chestertown
- ●Frost dates read at Chestertown's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chestertown's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chestertown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chestertown, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chestertown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chestertown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chestertown average
How we know this about Chestertown
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 Chestertown’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 Chestertown
When does frost risk typically end in Chestertown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chestertown typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Chestertown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chestertown typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chestertown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chestertown sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 30, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chestertown?
The federal record around Chestertown shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles 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 Chestertown?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chestertown's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chestertown'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 Chestertown’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chestertown's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,460 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chestertown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chestertown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 14 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chestertown, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chestertown's boundary and the 2,460 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chestertown's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Chestertownlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chestertown's 2,460 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chestertown's 2,460 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chestertown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,460 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Chestertown-wide figureread your own land →
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