Albion, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Albion, 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 Albion 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 Albion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Albion — the short answer
Albion, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Albion's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albion's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Albion
Each reading below is measured for Albion itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlbion runs about 214 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
MeasuredAlbion sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Albion is in
Albion sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Albion's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orleans County.
What Grows in Albion
Every plant below cleared Albion's own zone 6b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Albion?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Albion
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Albion, first recorded 2018. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Albion
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Albion. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYNEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SUBURBAN ELECTRIC OF ALBION, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- NYSDEC R8 SPILL 0751079 ABANDONED GAS STATIONBrownfields · 850 ft
- ALBION POST OFFICEBrownfields · 950 ft
- NYS DOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ALBION INDUSTRIAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MARCEL COTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JOE DECARLOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALBION INDUSTRIAL COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NYS CANAL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 4445260Brownfields · 1500 ft
- NYS CANAL CORP-MAINTENANCE SHOP ALBIONBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albion'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 Albion.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Albion
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Albion
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Albion, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Albion — CAFO (10 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Albion
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 Albion average
Your land is one point inside Albion
Everything above resolves to Albion as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Albion Average
Albion Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Albion
- ●One soil character for all of Albion
- ●Frost dates read at Albion's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albion's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Albion
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albion, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albion averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albion — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albion average
How we know this about Albion
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 Albion’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 Albion
When does frost risk typically end in Albion?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albion typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Albion?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Albion typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Albion?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albion sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 26, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albion?
The federal record around Albion is a meaningful one — 221 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Albion?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Albion's scale — its 6b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albion'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 Albion’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Albion's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,869 acres it covers and 221 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albion's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Albion's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 9 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 221 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Albion, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Albion's boundary and the 1,869 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Albion's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Albionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Albion's 1,869 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orleans County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orleans 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 Orleans County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albion's 1,869 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Albion you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,869 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Albion-wide figureread your own land →
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