Clarkson, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Clarkson, 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 Clarkson 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 Clarkson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clarkson — the short answer
Clarkson, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 6b is Clarkson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarkson's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarkson
Each reading below is measured for Clarkson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClarkson runs about 213 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredClarkson sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Clarkson is in
Clarkson sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clarkson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Clarkson
Every plant below cleared Clarkson's own zone 6b and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarkson?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Clarkson
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Clarkson, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Clarkson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarkson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF CLARKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TOWN OF CLARKSON ERP SITE E828143Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CLARKSON TOWN OF - SERVICE STATION FORMERLYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COLLEGE SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CROSBY'S CLARKSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BROCKPORT CHEMICAL FEED STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MO 1826Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- NYS POLICE BROCKPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- VILLAGE OF BROCKPORT D P WUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- NORTHSIDE PEGASUS GROUP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- EXPRESS MART #354Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DBA RITE AID #02674Brownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarkson'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 Clarkson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarkson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarkson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarkson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clarkson — Superfund (6 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Clarkson
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 Clarkson average
Your land is one point inside Clarkson
Everything above resolves to Clarkson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Clarkson Average
Clarkson Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Clarkson
- ●One soil character for all of Clarkson
- ●Frost dates read at Clarkson's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarkson's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarkson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarkson, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarkson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarkson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarkson average
How we know this about Clarkson
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 Clarkson’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 Clarkson
When does frost risk typically end in Clarkson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkson typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Clarkson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarkson typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarkson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarkson sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 26, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarkson?
The federal record around Clarkson is a meaningful one — 324 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (176), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Clarkson?
From about Oct 10 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 Nov 9 (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 Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarkson's scale — its 6b band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarkson'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 Clarkson’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Clarkson's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,830 acres it covers and 324 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarkson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarkson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 9 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 324 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarkson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarkson's boundary and the 5,830 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clarkson's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Clarksonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clarkson's 5,830 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarkson's 5,830 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarkson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,830 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Clarkson-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides