Olcott, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Olcott, 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 Olcott 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 Olcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olcott — the short answer
Olcott, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- 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 6b is Olcott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olcott's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olcott
Each reading below is measured for Olcott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlcott runs about 220 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
MeasuredOlcott 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 Olcott is in
Olcott sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Olcott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Niagara County.
What Grows in Olcott
Every plant below cleared Olcott's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olcott?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Olcott
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Olcott, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Olcott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olcott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE HARBOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NEWFANE WASTEWATER PUMP STATION #5Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- REABOLD'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NEWFANE WD#4PFAS · 0.6 mi
- NEWFANE WD NO1,2,3 CONSOLPFAS · 0.6 mi
- OLCOTT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- OLDHAM SAW COBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SUN ORCHARD FRUIT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NOURYON FUNCTIONAL CHEMICALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- NOURYON FUNCTIONAL CHEMICALS LLCSuperfund · 1.3 mi
- NOURYON FUNCTIONAL CHEMICALS LLCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AKZO NOBEL POLYMER CHEMICALS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olcott'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 Olcott.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Olcott
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olcott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olcott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olcott, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Olcott — CAFO (6 sites) and PFAS (4 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Olcott
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 Olcott average
Your land is one point inside Olcott
Everything above resolves to Olcott 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 Olcott Average
Olcott Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Olcott
- ●One soil character for all of Olcott
- ●Frost dates read at Olcott's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olcott's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olcott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olcott, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olcott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olcott average
How we know this about Olcott
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 Olcott’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 Olcott
When does frost risk typically end in Olcott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olcott typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Olcott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olcott typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olcott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olcott sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Nov 2, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olcott?
The federal record around Olcott is a meaningful one — 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Olcott?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olcott's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olcott'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 Olcott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Olcott's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,322 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olcott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olcott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 16 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olcott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olcott's boundary and the 2,322 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olcott's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Olcottlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olcott's 2,322 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Niagara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Niagara 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 Niagara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olcott's 2,322 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olcott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,322 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Olcott-wide figureread your own land →