Akron, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Akron, 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 Akron 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 Akron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Akron — the short answer
Akron, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- 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 6a is Akron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Akron's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Akron
Each reading below is measured for Akron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAkron runs about 205 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
MeasuredAkron sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Akron is in
Akron sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Akron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Akron
Every plant below cleared Akron's own zone 6a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Akron?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Akron
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Akron, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Akron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Akron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VILLAGE OF AKRON P.W. GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- AKRON FALLS PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PATRICIA THOMASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HEALTH CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RENN'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- COLD SPRING CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TOWN OF NEWSTEADUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PIXLEY'S SHUR FINE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORD GUM & MACHINE CO INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- NOCO ENERGY CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAUNDRIMATUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AAKRON RULE CORPORATIONBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Akron'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 Akron.
Total Sites
336
within ~10 miles of Akron
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Akron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Akron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Akron, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Akron. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Akron
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 Akron average
Your land is one point inside Akron
Everything above resolves to Akron 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 Akron Average
Akron Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Akron
- ●One soil character for all of Akron
- ●Frost dates read at Akron's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Akron's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Akron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Akron, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Akron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Akron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Akron average
How we know this about Akron
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 Akron’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 Akron
When does frost risk typically end in Akron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Akron typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Akron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Akron typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Akron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Akron sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 23, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Akron?
The federal record around Akron is a meaningful one — 336 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (154), 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 Akron?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Akron's scale — its 6a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Akron'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 Akron’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Akron's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,291 acres it covers and 336 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Akron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Akron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 6 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 336 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Akron, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Akron's boundary and the 1,291 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Akron's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Akronlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Akron's 1,291 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Akron's 1,291 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Akron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,291 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 Akron-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkAkron sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides