Tompkins County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Tompkins County lies within the Finger Lakes — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Tompkins County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Tompkins 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 Tompkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tompkins County — the short answer
Tompkins County, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 304K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 304K 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 6a is Tompkins County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tompkins County's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Tompkins County
Across a year, Tompkins County accumulates about 2,206 growing degree days above 50°F, about 30 fewer than the middle New York county — ahead of 27 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 Tompkins County
Across Tompkins County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Erie, Langford, and Bath are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Tompkins County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Tompkins County as well drained — but another 59% drains differently: 26% moderately well drained, 25% somewhat poorly drained.
Erie is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Langford (10%) and Bath (10%).
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 Tompkins County
Each reading below is measured for Tompkins 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 Tompkins 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 Tompkins County runs about pH 5.5–6.3, 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
MeasuredTompkins County runs about 178 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
MeasuredTompkins County 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 Tompkins County is in
Tompkins County sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Tompkins County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Tompkins County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 178-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 Tompkins County?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Tompkins County
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Tompkins County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle74 documented records
- monarch butterfly260 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Tompkins County
USGS estimates 11,058 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Tompkins County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (10,037 lb) and Metolachlor-s (9,671 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 Tompkins County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Tompkins County — 575 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). 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 Tompkins 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 Tompkins County
Closest first, across Tompkins County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EASTERN ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION CO-OP.Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- US PLANT SOIL & NUTRITION LABBrownfields · 2000 ft
- H.H. LOVE FIELD BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BOYCE THOMPSON INSTITUTEBrownfields · 2300 ft
- HUMPHREYS SERVICE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CALDWELL FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- STATE FLEET GARAGE / TRANSITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VET COLLEGE / BAKER INSTITUTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SO CAYUGA LAKE WATER COMM-SHELDON RD WATER STORAGE TANKBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- ITHACA CITY BRIDGE-BIN 2210620Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- BILL'S SUNOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CORNELL UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tompkins 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 Tompkins County.
Total Sites
575
across Tompkins County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Tompkins County
Severity Distribution
across Tompkins County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tompkins County, two things run higher than the national average across Tompkins County — CAFO (15 sites) and Nitrate (186 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tompkins 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 Tompkins County average
Your land is one point inside Tompkins County
Everything above resolves to Tompkins County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 304K 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 Tompkins County Average
Tompkins County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tompkins County
- ●One soil character for all of Tompkins County
- ●Frost dates read at Tompkins County's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tompkins County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Tompkins County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tompkins County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tompkins County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tompkins County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tompkins County average
How we know this about Tompkins 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 Tompkins County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Tompkins County
When does frost risk typically end in Tompkins County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tompkins County typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Tompkins County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tompkins County sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 8, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tompkins County?
The federal record around Tompkins County is a meaningful one — 575 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (222), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tompkins County's scale — its 6a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tompkins 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 Tompkins County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Tompkins County's own scale — its own ~178-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 575 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tompkins County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tompkins County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Tompkins CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 575 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Tompkins County's boundary and the 303,776 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tompkins County sitting wholly inside the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Tompkins County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Tompkins 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 Tompkins County — the ~178 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 Tompkins County's 303,776 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 575 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 Tompkins Countyread your own land →