Wells Bridge, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wells Bridge, 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 Wells Bridge 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 Wells Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wells Bridge — the short answer
Wells Bridge, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 579 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 579 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 5b is Wells Bridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wells Bridge's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wells Bridge
Each reading below is measured for Wells Bridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWells Bridge runs about 163 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
MeasuredWells Bridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Wells Bridge is in
Wells Bridge sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wells Bridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otsego County.
What Grows in Wells Bridge
Every plant below cleared Wells Bridge's own zone 5b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wells Bridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Wells Bridge
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Wells Bridge, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wells Bridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wells Bridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MR. MICHAEL HOLLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNATEGO JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- OG 27Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1094292Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- NYSDOT REG9 BIN 1094291Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1094120Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- OTEGO COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- NYSEG NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC AND GAS - OTEGO SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- BETTIOL REAL ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- QUICKWAY # 73Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- OG 311Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- NYSDOT REG9 BIN 1094012Brownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wells Bridge'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 Wells Bridge.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wells Bridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wells Bridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wells Bridge, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Wells Bridge. 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 Wells Bridge
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 Wells Bridge average
Your land is one point inside Wells Bridge
Everything above resolves to Wells Bridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 579 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 Wells Bridge Average
Wells Bridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wells Bridge
- ●One soil character for all of Wells Bridge
- ●Frost dates read at Wells Bridge's scale: May 5 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wells Bridge's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wells Bridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wells Bridge, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wells Bridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wells Bridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wells Bridge average
How we know this about Wells Bridge
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 Wells Bridge’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 Wells Bridge
When does frost risk typically end in Wells Bridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wells Bridge typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Wells Bridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wells Bridge typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wells Bridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wells Bridge sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 1, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wells Bridge?
The federal record around Wells Bridge runs heavier than most — 224 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (117), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Wells Bridge?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wells Bridge's scale — its 5b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wells Bridge'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 Wells Bridge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wells Bridge's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 579 acres it covers and 224 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wells Bridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wells Bridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 15 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 224 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wells Bridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wells Bridge's boundary and the 579 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wells Bridge's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wells Bridgelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wells Bridge's 579 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otsego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otsego 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 Otsego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wells Bridge's 579 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wells Bridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 579 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Wells Bridge-wide figureread your own land →
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