Alexandria Bay, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alexandria Bay, 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 Alexandria Bay 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 Alexandria Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alexandria Bay — the short answer
Alexandria Bay, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 479 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- 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
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 479 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 5b is Alexandria Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alexandria Bay's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alexandria Bay
Each reading below is measured for Alexandria Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlexandria Bay runs about 206 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
MeasuredAlexandria Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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
What Grows in Alexandria Bay
Every plant below cleared Alexandria Bay's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alexandria Bay?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Alexandria Bay
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alexandria Bay checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 89 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alexandria Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alexandria Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUACKENBUSH PROPERTY, EMPIRE BOAT LINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HORIZON MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- VAN'S MOTOR MARINE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- RIVER HOSPITAL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CAVALLARIO STEAKHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ROGERS MARINA, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NEW YORK TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WELLESLEY ISLAND CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HUTCHINSON'S BOAT WORKS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UNCLE SAM BOAT TOURS ABOVE GROUND TANK #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- O'BRIENS MARINA INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 8227Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alexandria Bay'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 Alexandria Bay.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Alexandria Bay
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alexandria Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alexandria Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alexandria Bay, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Alexandria Bay. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alexandria Bay
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 Alexandria Bay average
Your land is one point inside Alexandria Bay
Everything above resolves to Alexandria Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 479 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 Alexandria Bay Average
Alexandria Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Alexandria Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Alexandria Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Alexandria Bay's scale: Apr 14 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alexandria Bay's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alexandria Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alexandria Bay, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alexandria Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alexandria Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alexandria Bay average
How we know this about Alexandria Bay
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 Alexandria Bay’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 Alexandria Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Alexandria Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alexandria Bay typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Alexandria Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alexandria Bay 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 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alexandria Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alexandria Bay sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 23, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alexandria Bay?
The federal record around Alexandria Bay shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alexandria Bay?
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 Alexandria Bay's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alexandria Bay'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 Alexandria Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alexandria Bay's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 479 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alexandria Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alexandria Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Nov 6 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alexandria Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alexandria Bay's boundary and the 479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alexandria Bay 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 Alexandria Bay's 479 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 Alexandria Bay's 479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alexandria Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 479 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alexandria Bay-wide figureread your own land →