Peconic, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Peconic, 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 Peconic 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 Peconic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peconic — the short answer
Peconic, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 7b is Peconic's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peconic's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peconic
Each reading below is measured for Peconic itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeconic runs about 238 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
MeasuredPeconic 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 Peconic is in
Peconic sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peconic's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Peconic
Every plant below cleared Peconic's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peconic?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Peconic
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Peconic, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peconic
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peconic. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEDS AUTO BODYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- S 53329. 1Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- S115429. 1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- S 53335. 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SUN GAS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- S 47233. 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- S 33775. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- S 53326. 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MATTITUCK SDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- S 11699. 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- S136457. 1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peconic'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 Peconic.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peconic
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peconic
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peconic, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 278 sites within ~10 miles of Peconic. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Peconic
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 Peconic average
Your land is one point inside Peconic
Everything above resolves to Peconic 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 Peconic Average
Peconic Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Peconic
- ●One soil character for all of Peconic
- ●Frost dates read at Peconic's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peconic's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peconic
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peconic, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peconic averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peconic — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peconic average
How we know this about Peconic
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 Peconic’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 Peconic
When does frost risk typically end in Peconic?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peconic typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Peconic?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peconic typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peconic?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peconic sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Nov 6, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peconic?
The federal record around Peconic is a meaningful one — 382 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (278), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Peconic?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peconic's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peconic'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 Peconic’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peconic's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,131 acres it covers and 382 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peconic's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peconic's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 20 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 382 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peconic, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peconic's boundary and the 2,131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peconic's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Peconiclydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Peconic's 2,131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk 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 Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peconic's 2,131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peconic you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Peconic-wide figureread your own land →
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