Mastic Beach, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, 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 Mastic Beach, 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 Mastic Beach 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 Mastic Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mastic Beach — the short answer
Mastic Beach, New York: USDA zone 7a, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Mastic Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mastic Beach's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mastic Beach
Each reading below is measured for Mastic Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMastic Beach runs about 225 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
MeasuredMastic Beach 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 Mastic Beach is in
Mastic Beach sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mastic Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Mastic Beach
Every plant below cleared Mastic Beach's own zone 7a and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mastic Beach?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Mastic Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Mastic Beach, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mastic Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mastic Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAST END ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TRACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WILLIAM FLOYD UFSD #32Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- PASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BROOKHAVEN TOWN OF MASTIC BEACH HWY YARDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SAL'S AUTO CARE INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Margin Drive No. 3Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- S 52943. 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- S 18729. 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- HOME DEPOT USA INC HD1282Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #3382Brownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mastic Beach'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 Mastic Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mastic Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mastic Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mastic Beach, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 790 sites within ~10 miles of Mastic Beach. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Mastic Beach
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 Mastic Beach average
Your land is one point inside Mastic Beach
Everything above resolves to Mastic Beach as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mastic Beach Average
Mastic Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mastic Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Mastic Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Mastic Beach's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mastic Beach's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mastic Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mastic Beach, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mastic Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mastic Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mastic Beach average
How we know this about Mastic Beach
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 Mastic Beach’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 Mastic Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Mastic Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mastic Beach typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Mastic Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mastic Beach typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mastic Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mastic Beach sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 29, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mastic Beach?
The federal record around Mastic Beach is a meaningful one — 1,090 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (790), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Mastic Beach?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mastic Beach's scale — its 7a band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mastic Beach'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 Mastic Beach’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mastic Beach's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,135 acres it covers and 1,090 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mastic Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mastic Beach's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 12 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,090 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mastic Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mastic Beach's boundary and the 3,135 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mastic Beach's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Mastic Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mastic Beach's 3,135 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 Mastic Beach's 3,135 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mastic Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,135 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 Mastic Beach-wide figureread your own land →
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