Poughkeepsie, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Poughkeepsie, 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 Poughkeepsie 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 Poughkeepsie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Poughkeepsie — the short answer
Poughkeepsie, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Poughkeepsie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Poughkeepsie's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Poughkeepsie
Each reading below is measured for Poughkeepsie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPoughkeepsie runs about 199 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
MeasuredPoughkeepsie 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 Poughkeepsie is in
Poughkeepsie sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Poughkeepsie's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dutchess County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Poughkeepsie
Every plant below cleared Poughkeepsie's own zone 6b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Poughkeepsie?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Poughkeepsie
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Poughkeepsie, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Poughkeepsie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Poughkeepsie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORBUS HILL APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- POUGHKEEPSIE BOARD OF EDUCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF POUGHKEEPSIE SCHOOL DISTRICT GARAGEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- TILCON NEW YORK, INC. - CLINTON POINT QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- POUGHKEEPSIE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- ALFRED R. LAGUZZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- POUGHKEEPSIE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ST MARYS RECTORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JOHN DAVISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EMIL TSCHUDIN & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- THE RIVER CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- VASSAR-WARNER HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Poughkeepsie'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 Poughkeepsie.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Poughkeepsie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Poughkeepsie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Poughkeepsie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Poughkeepsie — PFAS (10 sites) and Superfund (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Poughkeepsie
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 Poughkeepsie average
Your land is one point inside Poughkeepsie
Everything above resolves to Poughkeepsie 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 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 Poughkeepsie Average
Poughkeepsie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Poughkeepsie
- ●One soil character for all of Poughkeepsie
- ●Frost dates read at Poughkeepsie's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Poughkeepsie's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Poughkeepsie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Poughkeepsie, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Poughkeepsie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Poughkeepsie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Poughkeepsie average
How we know this about Poughkeepsie
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 Poughkeepsie’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 Poughkeepsie
When does frost risk typically end in Poughkeepsie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Poughkeepsie typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Poughkeepsie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Poughkeepsie typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Poughkeepsie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Poughkeepsie sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 13, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Poughkeepsie?
The federal record around Poughkeepsie runs heavier than most — 943 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (607), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Poughkeepsie?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Poughkeepsie's scale — its 6b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Poughkeepsie'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 Poughkeepsie’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Poughkeepsie's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,293 acres it covers and 943 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Poughkeepsie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Poughkeepsie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 27 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 943 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Poughkeepsie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Poughkeepsie's boundary and the 3,293 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Poughkeepsie sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Poughkeepsielydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Poughkeepsie's 3,293 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dutchess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dutchess 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 Dutchess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Poughkeepsie's 3,293 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Poughkeepsie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,293 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 Poughkeepsie-wide figureread your own land →
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