Scotia, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scotia, 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 Scotia 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 Scotia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scotia — the short answer
Scotia, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Scotia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scotia's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scotia
Each reading below is measured for Scotia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredScotia runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredScotia 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 Scotia is in
Scotia sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Scotia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Schenectady County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Scotia
Every plant below cleared Scotia's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scotia?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Scotia
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Scotia, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scotia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scotia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLSON SIGN CO INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- CORNELL'S BRAKE SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ORLANDO MATTIOLIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FRANK & SONS BODY WORKSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- VILLAGE OF SCOTIA DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FIRST REFORMED CHURCH OF SCOTIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MARTINS AUTO SVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RESIDENCE OF ROBERT BARONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NYS DOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BAPTIST RETIREMENT CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DENNIS FRANCIS AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3107Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scotia'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 Scotia.
Total Sites
1,222
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scotia
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Scotia
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 Scotia average
Your land is one point inside Scotia
Everything above resolves to Scotia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Scotia Average
Scotia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Scotia
- ●One soil character for all of Scotia
- ●Frost dates read at Scotia's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scotia's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scotia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scotia, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scotia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scotia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scotia average
How we know this about Scotia
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 Scotia’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 Scotia
When does frost risk typically end in Scotia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scotia typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Scotia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scotia typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scotia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scotia sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 15, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scotia?
The federal record around Scotia is a meaningful one — 1,222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (603), the nearest Brownfields 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 Scotia?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scotia's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scotia'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 Scotia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Scotia's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,080 acres it covers and 1,222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scotia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Scotia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 29 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scotia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scotia's boundary and the 1,080 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Scotia 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 Scotialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scotia's 1,080 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schenectady County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schenectady 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 Schenectady County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scotia's 1,080 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scotia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,080 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Scotia-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkScotia sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides