Ulster County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Ulster County lies within the Catskills and 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
Ulster County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ulster 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 Ulster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ulster County — the short answer
Ulster County, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 720K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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
- 720K 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 Ulster County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ulster County's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ulster County
Across a year, Ulster County accumulates about 2,404 growing degree days above 50°F, about 168 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 41 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 Ulster County
Across Ulster County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Arnot, Oquaga, 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 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ulster County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Ulster County as well drained — but another 32% drains differently: 11% moderately well drained, 7% somewhat poorly drained.
Arnot is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Oquaga (11%) and Bath (7%).
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 Ulster County
Each reading below is measured for Ulster 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 Ulster 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 Ulster County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, 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
MeasuredUlster 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
MeasuredUlster 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 Ulster County is in
Ulster County spans 4 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Highlands (36%), Ridge and Valley (25%), Northern Allegheny Plateau (24%) and Northeastern Coastal Zone (16%). 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 Ulster County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ulster County's own USDA zone 6a 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 Ulster County?
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 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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Ulster County
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Ulster County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle37 documented records
- monarch butterfly693 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Ulster County
USGS estimates 4,389 lb of Diazinon on Ulster County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (2,635 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (2,453 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 Ulster County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ulster County — 1,082 documented sites across 8 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.
Ulster 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 Ulster County
Closest first, across Ulster County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF OLIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TRIANGLE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- RJW SCHOOL BUS TRANSIT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- THE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- NYCDEP - ASHOKAN COMPLEXBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- SHOKAN COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MACK CUSTOM WOODWORKINGBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- LUCKY PETROLEUM, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ROBERT J. WILKINS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SHOKAN ENTERPRISES, INC. DBA: OLIVE'S COUNTRY STORUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- TETTAS FOOD PORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- ONTEORA BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ulster 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 Ulster County.
Severity Distribution
across Ulster County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ulster County, two things run higher than the national average across Ulster County — PFAS (11 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ulster 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 Ulster County average
Your land is one point inside Ulster County
Everything above resolves to Ulster County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 720K 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 Ulster County Average
Ulster County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ulster County
- ●One soil character for all of Ulster County
- ●Frost dates read at Ulster County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ulster County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ulster County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ulster County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ulster County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ulster County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ulster County average
How we know this about Ulster 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 Ulster County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ulster County
When does frost risk typically end in Ulster County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ulster 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 Ulster County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ulster 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 Ulster County?
The federal record around Ulster County runs heavier than most — 1,082 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (654), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Ulster County's scale — its 6a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ulster 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 Ulster County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Ulster County's own scale — its own ~185-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,082 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ulster County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ulster 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 Ulster CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,082 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ulster County's boundary and the 719,510 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 4 ecoregions Ulster County spans, Northeastern Highlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Ulster County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ulster 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 Ulster 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 Ulster County's 719,510 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,082 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 Ulster Countyread your own land →