Hobart, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hobart, 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 Hobart 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 Hobart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hobart — the short answer
Hobart, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 319 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 319 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 5a is Hobart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hobart's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hobart
Each reading below is measured for Hobart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHobart runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHobart sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Hobart is in
Hobart sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hobart's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Hobart
Every plant below cleared Hobart's own zone 5a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hobart?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
Documented around Hobart
Spotted lanternfly documented 18 miles from Hobart, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hobart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hobart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOBART COMMUNITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MALLINCKRODTBrownfields · 550 ft
- MALLINCKRODTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- TYCO HEALTHCARE - MALLINCKRODTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MIRABITO CONVENIENCE #18Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TOWN OF STAMFORD HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EKLUND FARM MACHINERY INCCAFO · 1.6 mi
- STAMFORD REGION 4 OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SOUTH KORTRIGHT CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WEINLAND FARMSCAFO · 2.6 mi
- EKLUND FARM MACHINERY, INC.1CAFO · 2.6 mi
- MARSCHILOK RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hobart'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 Hobart.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Hobart
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hobart
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hobart
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hobart, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Hobart. 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 Hobart
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 Hobart average
Your land is one point inside Hobart
Everything above resolves to Hobart as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 319 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 Hobart Average
Hobart Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hobart
- ●One soil character for all of Hobart
- ●Frost dates read at Hobart's scale: May 14 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hobart's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hobart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hobart, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hobart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hobart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hobart average
How we know this about Hobart
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 Hobart’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 Hobart
When does frost risk typically end in Hobart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hobart typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Hobart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hobart typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hobart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hobart sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 24, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hobart?
The federal record around Hobart shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Hobart?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hobart rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hobart's scale — its 5a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hobart'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 Hobart’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hobart's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 319 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hobart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hobart's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 8 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hobart, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hobart's boundary and the 319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hobart's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Hobartlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hobart's 319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hobart's 319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hobart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 319 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hobart-wide figureread your own land →
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