Wainscott, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wainscott, 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 Wainscott 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 Wainscott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wainscott — the short answer
Wainscott, New York: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 7b is Wainscott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wainscott's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wainscott
Each reading below is measured for Wainscott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWainscott runs about 230 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
MeasuredWainscott sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Wainscott is in
Wainscott sits in the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wainscott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suffolk County.
What Grows in Wainscott
Every plant below cleared Wainscott's own zone 7b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wainscott?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Wainscott
Spotted lanternfly documented 3 miles from Wainscott, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wainscott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wainscott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- S 38309. 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- SOUTH FORK ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- S 46525. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- S 48518. 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SWEETWATERS FRENCH STYLE DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SPEEDWAY 7794Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- L W WINSLOW PAINTING INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- KEENER'S EAST END LITHOBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- VETERINARY CLINIC OF EAST HAMPTONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- S 48428. 1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- S115545. 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- S 8738. 1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wainscott'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 Wainscott.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wainscott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wainscott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wainscott, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 308 sites within ~10 miles of Wainscott. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wainscott
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 Wainscott average
Your land is one point inside Wainscott
Everything above resolves to Wainscott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Wainscott Average
Wainscott Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Wainscott
- ●One soil character for all of Wainscott
- ●Frost dates read at Wainscott's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wainscott's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wainscott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wainscott, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wainscott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wainscott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wainscott average
How we know this about Wainscott
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 Wainscott’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 Wainscott
When does frost risk typically end in Wainscott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wainscott typically lands around Apr 1, 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 Apr 22.
When is the first frost in Wainscott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wainscott typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wainscott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wainscott sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Nov 3, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wainscott?
The federal record around Wainscott is a meaningful one — 452 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (308), the nearest Nitrate 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 Wainscott?
From about Oct 18 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 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 Nov 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wainscott's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wainscott'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 Wainscott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wainscott's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,311 acres it covers and 452 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wainscott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wainscott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 17 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 452 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wainscott, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wainscott's boundary and the 4,311 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wainscott's own centroid, the Atlantic Coastal Pine BarrensUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wainscottlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wainscott's 4,311 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suffolk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suffolk 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 Suffolk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wainscott's 4,311 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wainscott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,311 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Wainscott-wide figureread your own land →