Old Bethpage, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Old Bethpage, 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 Old Bethpage 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 Old Bethpage — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Old Bethpage — the short answer
Old Bethpage, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- 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 7b is Old Bethpage's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Old Bethpage's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Old Bethpage
Each reading below is measured for Old Bethpage itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOld Bethpage runs about 243 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
MeasuredOld Bethpage 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 Old Bethpage is in
Old Bethpage sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Old Bethpage's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in Old Bethpage
Every plant below cleared Old Bethpage's own zone 7b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Old Bethpage?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Old Bethpage
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Old Bethpage, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Old Bethpage
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Old Bethpage. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NASSAU COUNTY FIRE TRAINING CENTERSuperfund · 2300 ft
- NASSAU COUNTY FIRE TRAINING CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- N 9936. 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- BETHPAGE WDPFAS · 0.5 mi
- N 617. 1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- N 189. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- N 7438. 3Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- N 7438. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- OLD BETHPAGE LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- USEPA REGION 2 - ALUMINUM LOUVRE CORP - EPA SUPERFUNDBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- BETHPAGE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- N 1233. 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Old Bethpage'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 Old Bethpage.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Old Bethpage
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Old Bethpage
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Old Bethpage, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Old Bethpage — Nitrate (2,686 sites) and Superfund (60 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Old Bethpage
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 Old Bethpage average
Your land is one point inside Old Bethpage
Everything above resolves to Old Bethpage 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 Old Bethpage Average
Old Bethpage Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Old Bethpage
- ●One soil character for all of Old Bethpage
- ●Frost dates read at Old Bethpage's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Old Bethpage's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Old Bethpage
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Old Bethpage, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Old Bethpage averages can't show:
We read public map data around Old Bethpage — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Old Bethpage average
How we know this about Old Bethpage
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 Old Bethpage’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 Old Bethpage
When does frost risk typically end in Old Bethpage?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Old Bethpage typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Old Bethpage?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Old Bethpage typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Old Bethpage?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Old Bethpage sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 9, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Old Bethpage?
The federal record around Old Bethpage runs heavier than most — 4,793 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (2,686), the nearest Superfund record about 0.4 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 Old Bethpage?
From about Oct 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 Nov 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Old Bethpage's scale — its 7b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Old Bethpage'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 Old Bethpage’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Old Bethpage's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,666 acres it covers and 4,793 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Old Bethpage's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Old Bethpage's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 23 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4,793 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Old Bethpage, the closest Superfund record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Old Bethpage's boundary and the 2,666 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Old Bethpage's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Old Bethpagelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Old Bethpage's 2,666 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nassau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nassau 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 Nassau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Old Bethpage's 2,666 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Old Bethpage you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,666 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.4 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 Old Bethpage-wide figureread your own land →