East Worcester, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Worcester, 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 East Worcester 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 East Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Worcester — the short answer
East Worcester, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 5b is East Worcester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Worcester's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Worcester
Each reading below is measured for East Worcester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Worcester runs about 177 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
MeasuredEast Worcester 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 East Worcester is in
East Worcester sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Worcester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otsego County.
What Grows in East Worcester
Every plant below cleared East Worcester's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Worcester?
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 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 21 — 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 East Worcester
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from East Worcester, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Worcester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Worcester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARRY CORNISHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OG 388Nitrate · 2000 ft
- NELSONS GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- OG 374Nitrate · 2600 ft
- DAVID L. HOGAN TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ANTEMAN'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DECATUR HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- NYSDOT REG 9 I-88 OVER SMITH RDBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP #351Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- TIME OUT BARUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1070609Brownfields · 3.9 mi
- WORCESTER FARMCAFO · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Worcester'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 East Worcester.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of East Worcester
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Worcester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Worcester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Worcester, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of East Worcester. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in East Worcester
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 East Worcester average
Your land is one point inside East Worcester
Everything above resolves to East Worcester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 East Worcester Average
East Worcester Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across East Worcester
- ●One soil character for all of East Worcester
- ●Frost dates read at East Worcester's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Worcester's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Worcester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Worcester, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Worcester averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Worcester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Worcester average
How we know this about East Worcester
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 East Worcester’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 East Worcester
When does frost risk typically end in East Worcester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Worcester 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.
When is the first frost in East Worcester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Worcester typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Worcester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Worcester sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 7, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Worcester?
The federal record around East Worcester shows 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in East Worcester?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Worcester's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Worcester'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 East Worcester’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Worcester's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,609 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Worcester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Worcester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 21 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Worcester, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Worcester's boundary and the 1,609 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Worcester's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Worcesterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Worcester's 1,609 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otsego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otsego 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 Otsego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Worcester's 1,609 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Worcester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,609 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 East Worcester-wide figureread your own land →
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