Can I still sow this? Days left before your first freeze
In the US, type your ZIP code; anywhere else, your city’s name. The tool counts the days from today to your first fall freeze, using the odds from the nearest NOAA station, or from a weather model for a city abroad. Then it sorts the crops by whether they can still finish if you sow now: the ones that beat even an early freeze, the gambles, and the ones that have run out of season.
Why the fast end of the range, and why the 1-in-10 date
Every crop matures across a range of days: a radish in 22 to 30, a butternut in 90 to 110. This tool counts the fast end plus a week of slack, because that’s the best case for a late sowing, with good soil, a warm autumn and no setbacks. It measures that against your first freeze, which is also a range of dates. Half of years freeze by the median date, and 1 year in 10 the freeze comes earlier. A crop that only clears the median loses to an early freeze in some years, so the safe deadline is the 1-in-10 date.
What this tool will not do
It won’t call a weather service, make up a maturity for a crop that has no recorded one, or promise a harvest. Days to maturity shift with soil, weather and variety, and a first-freeze date is odds. It’s a timing guide built from records that shows which crops are worth the gamble.
Frost dates for your ZIP code or city · Frost dates by location · All plants