Potsdam, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Potsdam, 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 Potsdam 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 Potsdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Potsdam — the short answer
Potsdam, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- 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 4b is Potsdam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Potsdam's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Potsdam
Each reading below is measured for Potsdam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPotsdam runs about 175 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
MeasuredPotsdam sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Potsdam is in
Potsdam sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Potsdam's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in Potsdam
Every plant below cleared Potsdam's own zone 4b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Potsdam?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Potsdam
Survey cells within 31 miles of Potsdam checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 72 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Potsdam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Potsdam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEY BANK OF NEW YORKUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- WASTE STREAM, INC.Superfund · 500 ft
- FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- COMMUNITY BANK, N.A.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CLARKSON UNIVERSITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- POTSDAM(V) POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- POTSDAM(V) FILTER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- JOHNSON NEWSPAPER CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SUGAR CREEK #598Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP. #238Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LEACH APT. BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- POTSDAM CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT CSDBrownfields · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Potsdam'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 Potsdam.
Total Sites
205
within ~10 miles of Potsdam
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Potsdam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Potsdam
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Potsdam, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Potsdam. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Potsdam
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 Potsdam average
Your land is one point inside Potsdam
Everything above resolves to Potsdam 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 Potsdam Average
Potsdam Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Potsdam
- ●One soil character for all of Potsdam
- ●Frost dates read at Potsdam's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Potsdam's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Potsdam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Potsdam, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Potsdam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Potsdam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Potsdam average
How we know this about Potsdam
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 Potsdam’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 Potsdam
When does frost risk typically end in Potsdam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Potsdam typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Potsdam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Potsdam typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Potsdam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Potsdam sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 4, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Potsdam?
The federal record around Potsdam is a meaningful one — 205 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), 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 Potsdam?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Potsdam's scale — its 4b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Potsdam'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 Potsdam’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Potsdam's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,148 acres it covers and 205 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Potsdam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Potsdam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 18 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 205 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Potsdam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Potsdam's boundary and the 3,148 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Potsdam's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Potsdam checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Potsdam's 3,148 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Potsdam's 3,148 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Potsdam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,148 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 Potsdam-wide figureread your own land →