Sunset Bay, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sunset Bay, 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 Sunset Bay 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 Sunset Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunset Bay — the short answer
Sunset Bay, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 424 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 424 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 Sunset Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunset Bay's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunset Bay
Each reading below is measured for Sunset Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunset Bay runs about 220 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
MeasuredSunset Bay 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 Sunset Bay is in
Sunset Bay sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sunset Bay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chautauqua County is mostly Erie Drift Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sunset Bay
Every plant below cleared Sunset Bay's own zone 6b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunset Bay?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Sunset Bay
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Sunset Bay, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sunset Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunset Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKESHORE NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SHEVLIN'S SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SILVER CREEK SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITY BIN 5001310Brownfields · 1800 ft
- KWIK FILL M0041/093Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SILVER CREEK SECTION MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MANNING BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ESTATE OF FRANCIS KILEY IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- VALVO CONVENIENCE & GAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GERNATT ASPHALT - HANOVER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GEORGE BENTGES DIST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #8402Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunset Bay'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 Sunset Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunset Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunset Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunset Bay, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Sunset Bay. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Sunset Bay
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 Sunset Bay average
Your land is one point inside Sunset Bay
Everything above resolves to Sunset Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 424 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 Sunset Bay Average
Sunset Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Sunset Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Sunset Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Sunset Bay's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunset Bay's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunset Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunset Bay, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunset Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunset Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunset Bay average
How we know this about Sunset Bay
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 Sunset Bay’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 Sunset Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Sunset Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Bay typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Sunset Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Bay typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunset Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunset Bay sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Nov 2, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunset Bay?
The federal record around Sunset Bay is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sunset Bay?
From about Oct 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 Nov 16 (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 Nov 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunset Bay's scale — its 6b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunset Bay'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 Sunset Bay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sunset Bay's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 424 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunset Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunset Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 16 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunset Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunset Bay's boundary and the 424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sunset Bay sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Sunset Baylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunset Bay's 424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chautauqua County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chautauqua 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 Chautauqua County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunset Bay's 424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunset Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sunset Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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