Altmar, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Altmar, 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 Altmar 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 Altmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altmar — the short answer
Altmar, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~184
- 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 5b is Altmar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altmar's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altmar
Each reading below is measured for Altmar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltmar runs about 184 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
MeasuredAltmar 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
The kind of country Altmar is in
Altmar sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Altmar's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oswego County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Altmar
Every plant below cleared Altmar's own zone 5b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altmar?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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 Altmar
Survey cells within 31 miles of Altmar checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 32 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Altmar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altmar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TAILWATER LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALTMAR-ALBION MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1031910Brownfields · 1900 ft
- OW1643Nitrate · 1900 ft
- ALTMAR MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NYS SALMON RIVER FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- OW 697Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- OW1599Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- TOWN OF ALBION HIGHWAY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LIGHTHOUSE HILLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- TOWN OF ALBIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ERIE BOULEVARD - BENNETTS BRIDGE HYDROBrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altmar'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 Altmar.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Altmar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altmar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altmar
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Altmar
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 Altmar average
Your land is one point inside Altmar
Everything above resolves to Altmar 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 Altmar Average
Altmar Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Altmar
- ●One soil character for all of Altmar
- ●Frost dates read at Altmar's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altmar's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altmar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altmar, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altmar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altmar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altmar average
How we know this about Altmar
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 Altmar’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 Altmar
When does frost risk typically end in Altmar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altmar typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Altmar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altmar 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altmar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altmar sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altmar?
The federal record around Altmar is a meaningful one — 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), 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 Altmar?
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 Altmar's scale — its 5b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altmar'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 Altmar’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Altmar's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,324 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altmar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altmar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altmar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altmar's boundary and the 1,324 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Altmar sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Altmar 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 Altmar's 1,324 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oswego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oswego 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 Oswego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altmar's 1,324 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altmar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,324 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 Altmar-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkAltmar sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides