Rhinebeck, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rhinebeck, 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 Rhinebeck 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 Rhinebeck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rhinebeck — the short answer
Rhinebeck, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 964 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 964 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 Rhinebeck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhinebeck's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rhinebeck
Each reading below is measured for Rhinebeck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRhinebeck runs about 184 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
MeasuredRhinebeck 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 Rhinebeck is in
Rhinebeck sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rhinebeck'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 Rhinebeck
Every plant below cleared Rhinebeck's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rhinebeck?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Rhinebeck
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Rhinebeck, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rhinebeck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rhinebeck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHURCH OF MESSIAHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CHURCH OF MESSIAHBrownfields · 700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2838Brownfields · 700 ft
- TOWN OF RHINEBECK TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RUGES AUTOMOTIVE DBA RUGE'S SUBARUUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RHINEBECK ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 800 ft
- NORTHERN DUTCHESS HOSPITALBrownfields · 950 ft
- THE SOUTHLANDS FOUNDATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ESTATE OF WILLIAM H. WHELAN, SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GOOD SHEPHARD CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RHINEBECK CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RHINEBECK VILLAGE GREEN APART.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rhinebeck'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 Rhinebeck.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rhinebeck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rhinebeck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rhinebeck, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rhinebeck — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (383 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Rhinebeck
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 Rhinebeck average
Your land is one point inside Rhinebeck
Everything above resolves to Rhinebeck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 964 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 Rhinebeck Average
Rhinebeck Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rhinebeck
- ●One soil character for all of Rhinebeck
- ●Frost dates read at Rhinebeck's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rhinebeck's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rhinebeck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rhinebeck, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rhinebeck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhinebeck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhinebeck average
How we know this about Rhinebeck
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 Rhinebeck’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 Rhinebeck
When does frost risk typically end in Rhinebeck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rhinebeck typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Rhinebeck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rhinebeck typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rhinebeck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rhinebeck sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 7, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rhinebeck?
The federal record around Rhinebeck is a meaningful one — 556 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (383), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rhinebeck?
From about Sep 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 Oct 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rhinebeck's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhinebeck'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 Rhinebeck’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rhinebeck's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 964 acres it covers and 556 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rhinebeck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rhinebeck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 21 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 556 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rhinebeck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rhinebeck's boundary and the 964 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rhinebeck 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 Rhinebecklydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rhinebeck's 964 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 Rhinebeck's 964 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rhinebeck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 964 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Rhinebeck-wide figureread your own land →
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