Altona, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Altona, 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 Altona 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 Altona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Altona — the short answer
Altona, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- 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 5a is Altona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Altona's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Altona
Each reading below is measured for Altona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAltona runs about 175 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
MeasuredAltona 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 Altona is in
Altona sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Altona's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clinton County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Altona
Every plant below cleared Altona's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Altona?
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 15 — 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 Altona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Altona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 82 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Altona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Altona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CL 115Nitrate · 750 ft
- ALTONA CORRECTIONAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GONYO'S COUNTRY MKT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TOWN OF ALTONA, TOWN HALL & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #10282Brownfields · 2500 ft
- TWIN OAKS SENIOR HOUSINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NORTHEAST FARM PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CL 848Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- THREE L FARMCAFO · 3.8 mi
- CL1459Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- R ROCKY TOP FARMCAFO · 4.7 mi
- RJ'S CORNER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Altona'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 Altona.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Altona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Altona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Altona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Altona, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Altona — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Altona
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 Altona average
Your land is one point inside Altona
Everything above resolves to Altona 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 Altona Average
Altona Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Altona
- ●One soil character for all of Altona
- ●Frost dates read at Altona's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Altona's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Altona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Altona, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Altona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Altona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Altona average
How we know this about Altona
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 Altona’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 Altona
When does frost risk typically end in Altona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Altona 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 Altona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Altona typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Altona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Altona sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 1, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Altona?
The federal record around Altona shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Altona?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Altona's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Altona'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 Altona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Altona's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,094 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Altona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Altona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 15 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Altona, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Altona's boundary and the 1,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Altona sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Altona 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 Altona's 1,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Altona's 1,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Altona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Altona-wide figureread your own land →