Massapequa, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Massapequa, 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 Massapequa 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 Massapequa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Massapequa — the short answer
Massapequa, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- 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 7b is Massapequa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Massapequa's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Massapequa
Each reading below is measured for Massapequa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMassapequa runs about 245 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
MeasuredMassapequa 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 Massapequa is in
Massapequa sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Massapequa's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nassau County is mostly Northeastern Coastal Zone. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Massapequa
Every plant below cleared Massapequa's own zone 7b and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Massapequa?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Massapequa
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Massapequa, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Massapequa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Massapequa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EPSTEIN WALTER I DDSBrownfields · 900 ft
- NOBILITY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AAMCO TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- MERIT OIL PROPERTYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- HESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CAPRI CLEANERSBrownfields · 2500 ft
- N 1223. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1049183Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- N 6036. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- N 7950. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- MAACO OF MASSAPEQUABrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MIDCOUNTY COLLISIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Massapequa'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 Massapequa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Massapequa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Massapequa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Massapequa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Massapequa — Nitrate (2,492 sites) and Superfund (55 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Massapequa
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 Massapequa average
Your land is one point inside Massapequa
Everything above resolves to Massapequa 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 Massapequa Average
Massapequa Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Massapequa
- ●One soil character for all of Massapequa
- ●Frost dates read at Massapequa's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Massapequa's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Massapequa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Massapequa, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Massapequa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Massapequa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Massapequa average
How we know this about Massapequa
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 Massapequa’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 Massapequa
When does frost risk typically end in Massapequa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Massapequa typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Massapequa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Massapequa typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Massapequa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Massapequa sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 10, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Massapequa?
The federal record around Massapequa runs heavier than most — 4,288 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,492), the nearest Brownfields 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 Massapequa?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Massapequa's scale — its 7b band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Massapequa'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 Massapequa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Massapequa's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,278 acres it covers and 4,288 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Massapequa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Massapequa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 24 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,288 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Massapequa, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Massapequa's boundary and the 2,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Massapequa sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Massapequalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Massapequa's 2,278 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nassau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nassau 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 Nassau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Massapequa's 2,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Massapequa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,278 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Massapequa-wide figureread your own land →