Port Jervis, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Jervis, 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 Port Jervis 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 Port Jervis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Port Jervis — the short answer
Port Jervis, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 Port Jervis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Jervis's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Jervis
Each reading below is measured for Port Jervis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Jervis runs about 189 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
MeasuredPort Jervis 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 Port Jervis is in
Port Jervis sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Jervis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Port Jervis
Every plant below cleared Port Jervis's own zone 6b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Jervis?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Port Jervis
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Port Jervis, first recorded 2019. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Port Jervis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Jervis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITIZENS TELECOM OF N.Y. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS CO THEBrownfields · 400 ft
- R & J AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 600 ft
- METRO NORTH RAILROAD PORT JERVIS LINE ORANGE COUNTYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- CITY OF PORT JERVIS DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PORT JERVIS CITY OFBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FORMER SULLIVAN AVENUE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- O&R PORT JERVIS SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1300 ft
- POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DBA RITE AID #00742Brownfields · 1300 ft
- BRAUNAGEL & BRAUNAGEL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JOE & CEANN MIEDEMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Jervis'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 Port Jervis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Jervis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Jervis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Jervis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Jervis — Nitrate (120 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Port Jervis
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 Port Jervis average
Your land is one point inside Port Jervis
Everything above resolves to Port Jervis 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 city 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 Port Jervis Average
Port Jervis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Port Jervis
- ●One soil character for all of Port Jervis
- ●Frost dates read at Port Jervis's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Jervis's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Jervis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Jervis, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Jervis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Jervis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Jervis average
How we know this about Port Jervis
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Port Jervis’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Port Jervis
When does frost risk typically end in Port Jervis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Jervis typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Port Jervis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Jervis typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Jervis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Jervis sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 11, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Jervis?
The federal record around Port Jervis is a meaningful one — 332 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Port Jervis?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Jervis's scale — its 6b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Jervis'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 Port Jervis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Port Jervis's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,619 acres it covers and 332 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Jervis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Jervis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 25 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 332 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Jervis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Jervis's boundary and the 1,619 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port Jervis's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Port Jervislydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Jervis's 1,619 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Jervis's 1,619 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Jervis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,619 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Port Jervis-wide figureread your own land →