New Berlin, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in New Berlin, 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 New Berlin 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 New Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Berlin — the short answer
New Berlin, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 682 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 682 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 5b is New Berlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Berlin's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Berlin
Each reading below is measured for New Berlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Berlin runs about 172 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNew Berlin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 New Berlin is in
New Berlin sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Berlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chenango County.
What Grows in New Berlin
Every plant below cleared New Berlin's own zone 5b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Berlin?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around New Berlin
Spotted lanternfly documented 14 miles from New Berlin, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Berlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Berlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- MILFORD ACADEMY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- FORMER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #221Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VILLAGE OF NEW BERLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PREFERRED MUTUAL INSURANCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DEW DROP BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1004540Brownfields · 1600 ft
- KWIK FILL MO369 / 369Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TOWN OF NEW BERLIN HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FINAL CUT, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Berlin'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 New Berlin.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of New Berlin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Berlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Berlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Berlin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Berlin — CAFO (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in New Berlin
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 New Berlin average
Your land is one point inside New Berlin
Everything above resolves to New Berlin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 682 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 New Berlin Average
New Berlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across New Berlin
- ●One soil character for all of New Berlin
- ●Frost dates read at New Berlin's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Berlin's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Berlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Berlin, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Berlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Berlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Berlin average
How we know this about New Berlin
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 New Berlin’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 New Berlin
When does frost risk typically end in New Berlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Berlin typically lands around Apr 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 May 20.
When is the first frost in New Berlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Berlin typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Berlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Berlin sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 4, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Berlin?
The federal record around New Berlin is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 New Berlin?
From about Sep 18 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 Oct 18 (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 Oct 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Berlin's scale — its 5b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Berlin'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 New Berlin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Berlin's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 682 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Berlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Berlin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 18 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Berlin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Berlin's boundary and the 682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Berlin's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Berlinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Berlin's 682 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chenango County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chenango 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 Chenango County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Berlin's 682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Berlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 682 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 New Berlin-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkNew Berlin sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides