Painted Post, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Painted Post, 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 Painted Post 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 Painted Post — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Painted Post — the short answer
Painted Post, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 815 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 815 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 6a is Painted Post's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Painted Post's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Painted Post
Each reading below is measured for Painted Post itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPainted Post runs about 170 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
MeasuredPainted Post sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Painted Post is in
Painted Post sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Painted Post's own centroid rather than borrowed from Steuben County.
What Grows in Painted Post
Every plant below cleared Painted Post's own zone 6a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Painted Post?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Painted Post
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Painted Post, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Painted Post
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Painted Post. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB 85Nitrate · 500 ft
- CORNING CITY SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VILLAGE MINI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DRESSER-RAND COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DRESSER RAND COMPRESSOR DIVISIONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- DRESSER RAND COMPRESSOR DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- CORNING-PAINTED POST WEST HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2400 ft
- SB 76Nitrate · 2500 ft
- HAPPY LANDING 003Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6795Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- JOE KAPRALS AUTO SERVICE/MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BIG LOTS #5294Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Painted Post'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 Painted Post.
Total Sites
321
within ~10 miles of Painted Post
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Painted Post
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Painted Post
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Painted Post, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Painted Post — CAFO (4 sites) and PFAS (3 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 Painted Post
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 Painted Post average
Your land is one point inside Painted Post
Everything above resolves to Painted Post as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 815 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 Painted Post Average
Painted Post Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Painted Post
- ●One soil character for all of Painted Post
- ●Frost dates read at Painted Post's scale: May 2 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Painted Post's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Painted Post
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Painted Post, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Painted Post averages can't show:
We read public map data around Painted Post — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Painted Post average
How we know this about Painted Post
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 Painted Post’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 Painted Post
When does frost risk typically end in Painted Post?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Painted Post typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Painted Post?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Painted Post typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Painted Post?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Painted Post sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 5, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Painted Post?
The federal record around Painted Post is a meaningful one — 321 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (126), the nearest Nitrate 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 Painted Post?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Painted Post's scale — its 6a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Painted Post'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 Painted Post’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Painted Post's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 815 acres it covers and 321 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Painted Post's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Painted Post's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 19 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 321 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Painted Post, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Painted Post's boundary and the 815 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Painted Post's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Painted Postlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Painted Post's 815 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Steuben County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Steuben 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 Steuben County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Painted Post's 815 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Painted Post you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 815 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Painted Post-wide figureread your own land →
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