Adams Center, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Adams Center, 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 Adams Center 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 Adams Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Adams Center — the short answer
Adams Center, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 5a is Adams Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Adams Center's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Adams Center
Each reading below is measured for Adams Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAdams Center runs about 183 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
MeasuredAdams Center sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Adams Center is in
Adams Center sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Adams Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Adams Center
Every plant below cleared Adams Center's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Adams Center?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Adams Center
Survey cells within 31 miles of Adams Center checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 56 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Adams Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Adams Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHAW OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HI-LITE MARKINGS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ADAMS(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ADAMS CENTER GREAT AMERICANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SOUTH JEFFERSON SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1032110Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- KENT NUTRITION GROUP INC FKA BLUE SEAL FEEDS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #40488Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MONROE TRACTOR - ADAMS CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AGWAY FEED SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- IRON BLOCK HARLEY-DAVIDSON, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Adams Center'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 Adams Center.
Total Sites
415
within ~10 miles of Adams Center
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Adams Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Adams Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Adams Center, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Adams Center. 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 Adams Center
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 Adams Center average
Your land is one point inside Adams Center
Everything above resolves to Adams Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Adams Center Average
Adams Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Adams Center
- ●One soil character for all of Adams Center
- ●Frost dates read at Adams Center's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Adams Center's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Adams Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Adams Center, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Adams Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Adams Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Adams Center average
How we know this about Adams Center
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 Adams Center’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 Adams Center
When does frost risk typically end in Adams Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Adams Center typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Adams Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Adams Center typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Adams Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Adams Center sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 10, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Adams Center?
The federal record around Adams Center is a meaningful one — 415 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (207), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Adams Center?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Adams Center's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Adams Center'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 Adams Center’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Adams Center's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,110 acres it covers and 415 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Adams Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Adams Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 24 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 415 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Adams Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Adams Center's boundary and the 3,110 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Adams Center's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Adams Center checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Adams Center's 3,110 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Adams Center's 3,110 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Adams Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,110 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Adams Center-wide figureread your own land →