Rensselaer County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Rensselaer County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rensselaer County — the short answer
Rensselaer County, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 418K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 418K 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 5b is Rensselaer County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rensselaer County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Rensselaer County
Across a year, Rensselaer County accumulates about 2,042 growing degree days above 50°F, about 194 fewer than the middle New York county — ahead of 20 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 Rensselaer County
Across Rensselaer County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Bernardston, Pittstown, and Nassau are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Rensselaer County
The USDA soil survey maps 41% of Rensselaer County as well drained — but another 51% drains differently: 17% somewhat excessively drained, 16% moderately well drained.
Bernardston is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Pittstown (9%) and Nassau (9%).
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 Rensselaer County
Each reading below is measured for Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Rensselaer County runs about pH 5.0–6.2, 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
MeasuredRensselaer County runs about 185 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
MeasuredRensselaer County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Rensselaer County is in
Rensselaer County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Highlands (85%) and Northeastern Coastal Zone (15%). 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 Rensselaer County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Rensselaer County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 185-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 Rensselaer County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Rensselaer County
Spotted lanternfly documented 13 miles from Rensselaer County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle5 documented records
- monarch butterfly140 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Rensselaer County
USGS estimates 9,362 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Rensselaer County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (9,107 lb) and Atrazine (6,852 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 Rensselaer County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Rensselaer County — 810 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 14 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Rensselaer County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Rensselaer County
Closest first, across Rensselaer County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAND LAKE LF.Superfund · 0.7 mi
- CRANDALL HAULINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TOWN OF POESTENKILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DEAN LEITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BUBIES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- RE2950Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- WILLIAM H EBEL & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- POESTENKILL ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- POESTENKILL FIRE CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- WAGNER FARMSCAFO · 3.5 mi
- WAGNER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ST - GOBAIN PERFORMANCE PLASTICSBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County.
Sources Checked
across Rensselaer County
Severity Distribution
across Rensselaer County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rensselaer County, two things run higher than the national average across Rensselaer County — Superfund (14 sites) and CAFO (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County average
Your land is one point inside Rensselaer County
Everything above resolves to Rensselaer County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 418K 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 Rensselaer County Average
Rensselaer County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rensselaer County
- ●One soil character for all of Rensselaer County
- ●Frost dates read at Rensselaer County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rensselaer County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Rensselaer County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rensselaer County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rensselaer County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rensselaer County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rensselaer County average
How we know this about Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Rensselaer County
When does frost risk typically end in Rensselaer County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rensselaer County typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Rensselaer County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rensselaer County sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 8, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rensselaer County?
The federal record around Rensselaer County is a meaningful one — 810 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (442), the nearest Superfund record about 0.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Rensselaer County's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Rensselaer County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 810 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rensselaer County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rensselaer County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Rensselaer CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 810 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Superfund record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Rensselaer County's boundary and the 417,573 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Rensselaer County spans, Northeastern Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Rensselaer County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Rensselaer 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 Rensselaer County — the ~185 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 Rensselaer County's 417,573 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 810 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 Rensselaer Countyread your own land →