Round Top, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Round Top, 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 Round Top 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 Round Top — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Round Top — the short answer
Round Top, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- 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 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Round Top's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Round Top's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Round Top
Each reading below is measured for Round Top itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRound Top runs about 174 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
MeasuredRound Top 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 Round Top is in
Round Top sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Round Top's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Round Top
Every plant below cleared Round Top's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Round Top?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 17 — 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 Round Top
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Round Top, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Round Top
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Round Top. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROUND TOP CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CATSKILL GAME FARM INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PURLING ROLLER RINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- G 834Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- TRIANGLE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 5499Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- SLATER'S SMART STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- G2189Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- GREENE COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- GETTY #58794Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SHAFIQ HANDAL AND GERIES ELALIUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- FORMER GETTY GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Round Top'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 Round Top.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Round Top
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Round Top
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Round Top, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 132 sites within ~10 miles of Round Top. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Round Top
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 Round Top average
Your land is one point inside Round Top
Everything above resolves to Round Top as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Round Top Average
Round Top Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Round Top
- ●One soil character for all of Round Top
- ●Frost dates read at Round Top's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Round Top's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Round Top
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Round Top, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Round Top averages can't show:
We read public map data around Round Top — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Round Top average
How we know this about Round Top
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 Round Top’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 Round Top
When does frost risk typically end in Round Top?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Round Top 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 Round Top?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Round Top typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Round Top?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Round Top sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 3, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Round Top?
The federal record around Round Top is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (132), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Round Top?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Round Top's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Round Top'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 Round Top’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Round Top's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,602 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Round Top's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Round Top's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 17 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Round Top, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Round Top's boundary and the 5,602 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Round Top's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Round Toplydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Round Top's 5,602 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Round Top's 5,602 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Round Top you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,602 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Round Top-wide figureread your own land →