Akwesasne, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Akwesasne, 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 Akwesasne 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 Akwesasne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Akwesasne — the short answer
Akwesasne, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 27K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 27K 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 Akwesasne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Akwesasne's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Akwesasne
Each reading below is measured for Akwesasne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAkwesasne runs about 181 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
MeasuredAkwesasne 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 Akwesasne is in
Akwesasne sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Akwesasne's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Akwesasne
Every plant below cleared Akwesasne's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Akwesasne?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Akwesasne
Survey cells within 31 miles of Akwesasne checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 85 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Akwesasne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Akwesasne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST REGIS MOHAWK SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CHARTER ONE MORTGAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MOHAWK ASBESTOS SPECIALIST ENVIRONMENTAL COBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SAINT REGIS MOHAWK TRIBEPFAS · 1.3 mi
- NYSDOT-BRADLEY CORNERS SUB RESIDENCYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ST. REGIS MOHAWK ASBESTOSSuperfund · 2.3 mi
- HAMMILL'S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MINERALS PROCESSING CORP, OF NEW YORKToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- GM POWERTRAIN - MASSENA PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- GM POWERTRAIN - MASSENA PLANTBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1023922Brownfields · 3.4 mi
- GENERAL MOTORS POWERTRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Akwesasne'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 Akwesasne.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Akwesasne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Akwesasne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Akwesasne, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Akwesasne. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Akwesasne
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 Akwesasne average
Your land is one point inside Akwesasne
Everything above resolves to Akwesasne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 27K 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 Akwesasne Average
Akwesasne Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Akwesasne
- ●One soil character for all of Akwesasne
- ●Frost dates read at Akwesasne's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Akwesasne's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Akwesasne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Akwesasne, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Akwesasne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Akwesasne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Akwesasne average
How we know this about Akwesasne
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 Akwesasne’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 Akwesasne
When does frost risk typically end in Akwesasne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Akwesasne typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Akwesasne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Akwesasne typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Akwesasne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Akwesasne sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 5, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Akwesasne?
The federal record around Akwesasne is a meaningful one — 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Akwesasne?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Akwesasne's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Akwesasne'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 Akwesasne’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Akwesasne's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 26,632 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Akwesasne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Akwesasne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 19 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Akwesasne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Akwesasne's boundary and the 26,632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Akwesasne sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Akwesasne 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 Akwesasne's 26,632 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Akwesasne's 26,632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Akwesasne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,632 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Akwesasne-wide figureread your own land →
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