Wolcott, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Wolcott, 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 Wolcott 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 Wolcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wolcott — the short answer
Wolcott, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- 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 6b is Wolcott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wolcott's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wolcott
Each reading below is measured for Wolcott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWolcott runs about 215 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
MeasuredWolcott 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 Wolcott is in
Wolcott sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wolcott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Wolcott
Every plant below cleared Wolcott's own zone 6b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wolcott?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Wolcott
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Wolcott, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wolcott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wolcott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- VILLAGE OF WOLCOTTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GOVENER CHEV/OLDS/PONT/INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RED APPLE FOOD MART M0346/346Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6125Brownfields · 1500 ft
- D & L DISPOSAL & RECYCLING SERVICE INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- RECKITT BENCKISERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RECKITT BENCKISERToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- ROCHESTER GAS & ELECTRIC CORPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- NORTH ROSE-WOLCOTT CEN SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ROCHESTER GAS & ELECTRIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wolcott'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 Wolcott.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Wolcott
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wolcott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wolcott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wolcott, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Wolcott. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Wolcott
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 Wolcott average
Your land is one point inside Wolcott
Everything above resolves to Wolcott 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 Wolcott Average
Wolcott Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wolcott
- ●One soil character for all of Wolcott
- ●Frost dates read at Wolcott's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wolcott's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wolcott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wolcott, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wolcott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wolcott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wolcott average
How we know this about Wolcott
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 Wolcott’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 Wolcott
When does frost risk typically end in Wolcott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcott typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Wolcott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wolcott typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wolcott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wolcott sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 26, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wolcott?
The federal record around Wolcott is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), 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 Wolcott?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wolcott's scale — its 6b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wolcott'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 Wolcott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wolcott's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,247 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wolcott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wolcott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 9 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wolcott, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wolcott's boundary and the 1,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wolcott's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wolcottlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wolcott's 1,247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wolcott's 1,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wolcott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,247 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 Wolcott-wide figureread your own land →