Fort Montgomery, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Montgomery, 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 Fort Montgomery 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 Fort Montgomery — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Montgomery — the short answer
Fort Montgomery, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Fort Montgomery's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Montgomery's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Montgomery
Each reading below is measured for Fort Montgomery itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Montgomery runs about 220 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
MeasuredFort Montgomery sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Fort Montgomery is in
Fort Montgomery sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Fort Montgomery's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Orange County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Montgomery
Every plant below cleared Fort Montgomery's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Montgomery?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Fort Montgomery
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Fort Montgomery, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Montgomery
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Montgomery. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LJ MARCHESE CHEVROLET, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NICK'S GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ED. MONROE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FORT MARKET MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TONNESONS BODY SHOP & GARAGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HIGHLAND FALLS FORT MONTGOMERY CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SCHAUT'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HIGHLAND FALLS VILLAGEPFAS · 0.7 mi
- U.S.M.A. - STONEY LONESOME SYSPFAS · 0.7 mi
- U.S.M.A. - LUSK SYSTEMPFAS · 0.7 mi
- SUNOCO #0006-7934Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- JAMES O'NEILL HSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Montgomery'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 Fort Montgomery.
Total Sites
585
within ~10 miles of Fort Montgomery
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Montgomery
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Montgomery
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Montgomery, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Montgomery — PFAS (8 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Montgomery
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 Fort Montgomery average
Your land is one point inside Fort Montgomery
Everything above resolves to Fort Montgomery as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Fort Montgomery Average
Fort Montgomery Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fort Montgomery
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Montgomery
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Montgomery's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Montgomery's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Montgomery
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Montgomery, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Montgomery averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Montgomery — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Montgomery average
How we know this about Fort Montgomery
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 Fort Montgomery’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 Fort Montgomery
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Montgomery?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Montgomery typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Fort Montgomery?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Montgomery typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Montgomery?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Montgomery sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 26, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Montgomery?
The federal record around Fort Montgomery is a meaningful one — 585 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (263), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Montgomery?
From about Oct 10 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 Nov 9 (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 Nov 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Montgomery's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Montgomery'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 Fort Montgomery’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Montgomery's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,178 acres it covers and 585 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Montgomery's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Montgomery's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 9 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 585 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Montgomery, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Montgomery's boundary and the 1,178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Montgomery sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Montgomerylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Montgomery's 1,178 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Montgomery's 1,178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Montgomery you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,178 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Fort Montgomery-wide figureread your own land →