Salt Point, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Salt Point, 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 Salt Point 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 Salt Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Salt Point — the short answer
Salt Point, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 531 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 531 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 Salt Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salt Point's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salt Point
Each reading below is measured for Salt Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalt Point runs about 183 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
MeasuredSalt Point 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 Salt Point is in
Salt Point sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Salt Point'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 Salt Point
Every plant below cleared Salt Point's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Salt Point?
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 20 — 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 Salt Point
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Salt Point, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Salt Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salt Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOX RUN LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MATTS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- SALT POINT ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 1 STORY - 3 STORE COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DU6186Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 5502439Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STEWART'S SHOPS #342Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1032360Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- CAVALIER GAGE & ELECTRONICS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- RT 82 SAND & GRAVEL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salt Point'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 Salt Point.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salt Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salt Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salt Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Salt Point — PFAS (7 sites) and Superfund (8 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 Salt Point
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 Salt Point average
Your land is one point inside Salt Point
Everything above resolves to Salt Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 531 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 Salt Point Average
Salt Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Salt Point
- ●One soil character for all of Salt Point
- ●Frost dates read at Salt Point's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salt Point's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salt Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salt Point, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salt Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salt Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salt Point average
How we know this about Salt Point
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 Salt Point’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 Salt Point
When does frost risk typically end in Salt Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Point 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 Salt Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Point typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salt Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salt Point sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 6, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salt Point?
The federal record around Salt Point is a meaningful one — 494 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (340), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Salt Point?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salt Point's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salt Point'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 Salt Point’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Salt Point's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 531 acres it covers and 494 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salt Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salt Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 20 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 494 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salt Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salt Point's boundary and the 531 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Salt Point 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 Salt Pointlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Salt Point's 531 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 Salt Point's 531 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salt Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 531 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Salt Point-wide figureread your own land →
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