New Paltz, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Paltz, 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 Paltz 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 Paltz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Paltz — the short answer
New Paltz, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is New Paltz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Paltz's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Paltz
Each reading below is measured for New Paltz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Paltz runs about 194 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 Paltz sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Paltz is in
New Paltz sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Paltz's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Ulster County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in New Paltz
Every plant below cleared New Paltz's own zone 6b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Paltz?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around New Paltz
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from New Paltz, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near New Paltz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Paltz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEACON AUTOMOTIVE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SUNOCO #0011-8208Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEW PALTZ MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NEW PALTZ GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DUTCHESS OIL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TOSCANI & SONS DELICATESSENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITGO GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FLEET SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NEW PALTZ GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NEW PALTZ POLICE DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VILLAGE OF NEW PALTZ DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KWIK MART OF NEW PALTZ, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Paltz'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 Paltz.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Paltz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Paltz
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Paltz, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Paltz — Superfund (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (405 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Paltz
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 Paltz average
Your land is one point inside New Paltz
Everything above resolves to New Paltz as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Paltz Average
New Paltz Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across New Paltz
- ●One soil character for all of New Paltz
- ●Frost dates read at New Paltz's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Paltz's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Paltz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Paltz, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Paltz averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Paltz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Paltz average
How we know this about New Paltz
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 Paltz’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 Paltz
When does frost risk typically end in New Paltz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Paltz typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in New Paltz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Paltz typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Paltz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Paltz sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 10, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Paltz?
The federal record around New Paltz runs heavier than most — 619 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (405), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 New Paltz?
From about Sep 24 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 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 Oct 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Paltz's scale — its 6b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Paltz'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 Paltz’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at New Paltz's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,128 acres it covers and 619 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Paltz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Paltz's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 24 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 619 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Paltz, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Paltz's boundary and the 1,128 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Paltz sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of New Paltzlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Paltz's 1,128 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ulster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ulster 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 Ulster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Paltz's 1,128 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Paltz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,128 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 New Paltz-wide figureread your own land →