Copake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Copake, 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 Copake 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 Copake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Copake — the short answer
Copake, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 790 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 790 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 Copake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Copake's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Copake
Each reading below is measured for Copake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCopake runs about 181 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
MeasuredCopake 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 Copake is in
Copake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Copake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Columbia County.
What Grows in Copake
Every plant below cleared Copake's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Copake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Copake
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Copake, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Copake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Copake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRONX HOUSE-EMANUEL CAMPS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LANGDON HURST FARMSCAFO · 1500 ft
- TOWN OF COPAKE HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COPAKE SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HEADS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WEST COPAKE OUTPOST - D P WUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CAPITAL TRACTOR SOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- RAYMOND A. WAITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ANCRAM AMERI-STORES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Weed Limonite MineMining · 2.4 mi
- ANCRAM GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Copake'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 Copake.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Copake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Copake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Copake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Copake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Copake — CAFO (7 sites) and Mining (11 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Copake
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 Copake average
Your land is one point inside Copake
Everything above resolves to Copake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 790 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 Copake Average
Copake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Copake
- ●One soil character for all of Copake
- ●Frost dates read at Copake's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Copake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Copake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Copake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Copake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Copake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Copake average
How we know this about Copake
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 Copake’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 Copake
When does frost risk typically end in Copake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Copake typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Copake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Copake typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Copake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Copake sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 8, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Copake?
The federal record around Copake is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), 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 Copake?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Copake's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Copake'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 Copake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Copake's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 790 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Copake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Copake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 22 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Copake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Copake's boundary and the 790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Copake's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Copakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Copake's 790 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Columbia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Columbia 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 Columbia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Copake's 790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Copake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 790 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 Copake-wide figureread your own land →
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