Putnam County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Putnam County lies within the Hudson Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Putnam County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Putnam County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Putnam County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Putnam County — the short answer
Putnam County, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 147K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 147K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Putnam County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Putnam County's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Putnam County
Across a year, Putnam County accumulates about 2,528 growing degree days above 50°F, about 292 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 49 of New York’s 62 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Putnam County
Across Putnam County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Charlton, Chatfield, and Paxton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.2–5.5, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
11%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Putnam County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Putnam County as well drained — but another 24% drains differently: 6% somewhat excessively drained, 5% very poorly drained.
Charlton is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Chatfield (21%) and Paxton (13%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Putnam County
Each reading below is measured for Putnam County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Putnam County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Putnam County runs about pH 4.2–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPutnam County runs about 203 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
MeasuredPutnam County 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 Putnam County is in
Putnam County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Highlands (82%) and Northeastern Coastal Zone (18%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Putnam County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Putnam County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 203-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New York profile.
Is it too late to plant in Putnam County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Putnam County
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Putnam County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle12 documented records
- monarch butterfly9 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Putnam County
USGS estimates 85 lb of Atrazine on Putnam County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (77 lb) and Diazinon (62 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Putnam County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Putnam County — 477 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Putnam County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Putnam County
Closest first, across Putnam County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- p 81Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- NOHAI'S ADAMS CORNERS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SHAFT 9 DELAWARE AQUEDUCTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NYCDEP BOYDS CORNER MAINTENANCE HOUSEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- TOWN OF KENT HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MORSE RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FRED ADOMS JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- NEW YORK TELEPHONE COBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CARMEL CLEANERSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- TOUCH OF CLASS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- NYCDEP - CARMEL GARAGE MAINTENANCE HOUSEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- LARUSSELL CLEANERS SITEBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Putnam County'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 Putnam County.
Sources Checked
across Putnam County
Severity Distribution
across Putnam County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Putnam County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites across Putnam County. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Putnam County
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 Putnam County average
Your land is one point inside Putnam County
Everything above resolves to Putnam County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 147K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Putnam County Average
Putnam County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Putnam County
- ●One soil character for all of Putnam County
- ●Frost dates read at Putnam County's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Putnam County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Putnam County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Putnam County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Putnam County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Putnam County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Putnam County average
How we know this about Putnam County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Putnam County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Putnam County
When does frost risk typically end in Putnam County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Putnam County typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
How long is the growing season in Putnam County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Putnam County sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 17, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Putnam County?
The federal record around Putnam County runs heavier than most — 477 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (266), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Putnam County's scale — its 6b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Putnam County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New York's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Putnam County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Putnam County's own scale — its own ~203-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 477 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Putnam County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Putnam County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Putnam CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 477 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Putnam County's boundary and the 147,361 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Putnam County spans, Northeastern Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Putnam County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Putnam County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Putnam County — the ~203 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Putnam County's 147,361 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 477 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Putnam Countyread your own land →