Rochester, NY · zone 5b · ~182 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in Rochester.
In Rochester, the typical last spring frost lands around Apr 25 and the first fall frost around Oct 24, giving you about 182 frost-free days. Cool-season crops go out before the last frost; warm-season crops wait until after it.
The 2026 windows
Sow dates for Rochester, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Mar 21 to May 21 | May 2 to Jul 2 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Mar 18 to May 2 | Aug 10 to Oct 9 |
| Carrot | — | Mar 18 to Apr 20 | Jul 29 to Aug 24 |
| Bush Bean | — | Apr 25 to Jun 15 | Jul 10 to Aug 12 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | May 2 to Aug 1 | Jun 23 to Jul 24 |
| Pepper, bell | Mar 30 to May 21 | May 11 to Jul 2 | — |
| Kale | Feb 4 to Mar 4 | Mar 18 to Apr 15 | Jul 24 to Sep 8 |
| Spinach | — | Mar 4 to Apr 15 | Aug 10 to Sep 28 |
Rochester sits in Zone 5b, but two gardens in the same city can be a week or two apart. The planner works from your ZIP code's frost dates, not the zone, so the dates land right for your block, not the metro average.
Build your Rochester garden plan.
Tell the free planner what you want to eat and who you're feeding. It returns plant counts, spacing, and frost-safe sow dates for ZIP 14604 in about 60 seconds.