Andes, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Andes, 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 Andes 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 Andes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Andes — the short answer
Andes, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 895 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 895 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 Andes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Andes's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Andes
Each reading below is measured for Andes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAndes runs about 135 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAndes 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 Andes is in
Andes sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Andes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Delaware County.
What Grows in Andes
Every plant below cleared Andes's own zone 5a and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Andes?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
Documented around Andes
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Andes, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Andes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Andes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANDES GENERAL STORE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TREMPERSKILL COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ANDES CENTRAL SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ANDES CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ANDES SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GEIGER RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- D1997Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- TOWN OF ANDES HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- BOVINA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- RUSSELL'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Andes'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 Andes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Andes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Andes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Andes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 65 sites within ~10 miles of Andes. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Andes
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 Andes average
Your land is one point inside Andes
Everything above resolves to Andes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 895 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 Andes Average
Andes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Andes
- ●One soil character for all of Andes
- ●Frost dates read at Andes's scale: May 21 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Andes's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Andes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Andes, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Andes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Andes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Andes average
How we know this about Andes
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 Andes’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 Andes
When does frost risk typically end in Andes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Andes typically lands around May 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 Jun 11.
When is the first frost in Andes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Andes typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Andes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Andes sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 21 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 11 to Sep 19, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Andes?
The federal record around Andes shows 104 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Andes?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Andes rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Andes's scale — its 5a band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Andes'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 Andes’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Andes's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 895 acres it covers and 104 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Andes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Andes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 21 and Oct 3 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 104 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Andes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Andes's boundary and the 895 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Andes's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Andeslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Andes's 895 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Delaware County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Delaware 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 Delaware County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Andes's 895 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Andes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 895 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 Andes-wide figureread your own land →
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