Vassar College, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Vassar College, 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 Vassar College 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 Vassar College — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vassar College — the short answer
Vassar College, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 460 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 460 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 Vassar College's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vassar College's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vassar College
Each reading below is measured for Vassar College itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVassar College runs about 198 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
MeasuredVassar College 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 Vassar College is in
Vassar College sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vassar College'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 Vassar College
Every plant below cleared Vassar College's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vassar College?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Vassar College
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Vassar College, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vassar College
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vassar College. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VASSAR COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VASSAR COLLEGEBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MANCHESTER GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- AAMCO TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2300 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS #387Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ELEANOR ROOSEVELT STATE OFFICE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- JYOTI INC. CITGO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GLADMORE CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GETTY 58731Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICA'S BEST INN/DAYS INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ARLINGTON ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CIRCLEVIEW PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vassar College'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 Vassar College.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vassar College
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vassar College
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vassar College, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vassar College — PFAS (10 sites) and Superfund (13 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.
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 Vassar College
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 Vassar College average
Your land is one point inside Vassar College
Everything above resolves to Vassar College as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 460 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 Vassar College Average
Vassar College Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Vassar College
- ●One soil character for all of Vassar College
- ●Frost dates read at Vassar College's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vassar College's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vassar College
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vassar College, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vassar College averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vassar College — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vassar College average
How we know this about Vassar College
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 Vassar College’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 Vassar College
When does frost risk typically end in Vassar College?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vassar College typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Vassar College?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vassar College typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vassar College?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vassar College sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 12, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vassar College?
The federal record around Vassar College runs heavier than most — 923 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (586), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Vassar College?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vassar College's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vassar College'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 Vassar College’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Vassar College's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 460 acres it covers and 923 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vassar College's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vassar College's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 26 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 923 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vassar College, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vassar College's boundary and the 460 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vassar College 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 Vassar Collegelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vassar College's 460 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 Vassar College's 460 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vassar College you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 460 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 Vassar College-wide figureread your own land →
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