Montauk, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Montauk, 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 Montauk 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 Montauk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montauk — the short answer
Montauk, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 12K 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)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Montauk's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montauk's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montauk
Each reading below is measured for Montauk itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontauk runs about 252 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
MeasuredMontauk 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 Montauk is in
Montauk sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Montauk's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Montauk
Every plant below cleared Montauk's own zone 7b and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montauk?
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 Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Montauk
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Montauk, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Montauk
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montauk. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONTAUK PRINTINGBrownfields · 1200 ft
- OCEAN ARTS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- S 51274. 1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- S 18762. 1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- S 3615. 1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- S 30207. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- S 48519. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- S 30208. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- MONTAUK DOWNS STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- INERGY PROPANE LLC DBA PULVER GASBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EAST HAMPTON PLANT DIST SYST-WELLS 1334DNitrate · 0.8 mi
- S 72418. 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montauk'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 Montauk.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montauk
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montauk
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montauk, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Montauk. 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 Montauk
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 Montauk average
Your land is one point inside Montauk
Everything above resolves to Montauk as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Montauk Average
Montauk Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Montauk
- ●One soil character for all of Montauk
- ●Frost dates read at Montauk's scale: Mar 24 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montauk's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montauk
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montauk, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montauk averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montauk — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montauk average
How we know this about Montauk
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 Montauk’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 Montauk
When does frost risk typically end in Montauk?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montauk 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 Montauk?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montauk typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Montauk?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montauk sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Nov 17, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Montauk?
The federal record around Montauk shows 73 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Montauk?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Montauk's scale — its 7b band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montauk'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 Montauk’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Montauk's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,834 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montauk's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montauk's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Dec 1 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montauk, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montauk's boundary and the 11,834 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montauk's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Montauklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montauk's 11,834 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 Montauk's 11,834 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montauk you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,834 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 Montauk-wide figureread your own land →