Islip Terrace, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Islip Terrace, 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 Islip Terrace 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 Islip Terrace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Islip Terrace — the short answer
Islip Terrace, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 815 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 815 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 7b is Islip Terrace's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Islip Terrace's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Islip Terrace
Each reading below is measured for Islip Terrace itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIslip Terrace runs about 232 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
MeasuredIslip Terrace sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Islip Terrace is in
Islip Terrace sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Islip Terrace's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Islip Terrace
Every plant below cleared Islip Terrace's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Islip Terrace?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Islip Terrace
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Islip Terrace, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Islip Terrace
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Islip Terrace. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S 35033. 1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- S 37140. 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- S 42827. 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- EAST ISLIP UFSD - RUTH C KINNEY ELEMBrownfields · 1500 ft
- S 63831. 1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- EAST ISLIP UFSD - ECC ADMINISTRATIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ACME AUTO RADIATOR & GLASSWORKS INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1059949Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- HECKSCHER STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- S 17464. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- SAMCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COHALEN COURT COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Islip Terrace'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 Islip Terrace.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Islip Terrace
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Islip Terrace
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Islip Terrace, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 1,192 sites within ~10 miles of Islip Terrace. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Islip Terrace
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 Islip Terrace average
Your land is one point inside Islip Terrace
Everything above resolves to Islip Terrace as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 815 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 Islip Terrace Average
Islip Terrace Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Islip Terrace
- ●One soil character for all of Islip Terrace
- ●Frost dates read at Islip Terrace's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Islip Terrace's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Islip Terrace
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Islip Terrace, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Islip Terrace averages can't show:
We read public map data around Islip Terrace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Islip Terrace average
How we know this about Islip Terrace
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 Islip Terrace’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 Islip Terrace
When does frost risk typically end in Islip Terrace?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Islip Terrace typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Islip Terrace?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Islip Terrace typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Islip Terrace?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Islip Terrace sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Nov 2, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Islip Terrace?
The federal record around Islip Terrace runs heavier than most — 2,710 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,263), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Islip Terrace?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Islip Terrace's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Islip Terrace'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 Islip Terrace’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Islip Terrace's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 815 acres it covers and 2,710 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Islip Terrace's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Islip Terrace's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 16 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,710 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Islip Terrace, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Islip Terrace's boundary and the 815 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Islip Terrace's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Islip Terracelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Islip Terrace's 815 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk 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 Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Islip Terrace's 815 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Islip Terrace you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 815 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Islip Terrace-wide figureread your own land →