Apalachin, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Apalachin, 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 Apalachin 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 Apalachin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apalachin — the short answer
Apalachin, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- 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 6a is Apalachin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apalachin's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apalachin
Each reading below is measured for Apalachin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApalachin runs about 176 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
MeasuredApalachin sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Apalachin is in
Apalachin sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apalachin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tioga County.
What Grows in Apalachin
Every plant below cleared Apalachin's own zone 6a and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apalachin?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Apalachin
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Apalachin, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Apalachin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apalachin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIOGA LEARNING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- OWEGO APALACHIN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- VALVOLINE INSTANT OIL CHANGEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- APALACHIN FIRE STATION #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MLI INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- APALACHIN PLANING MILL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- S C HANSEN INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- KEN'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HOWDY JONES CONSTRUCTION CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- APALACHIN SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ST. MARGARET MARY CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 4551Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apalachin'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 Apalachin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apalachin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apalachin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apalachin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Apalachin — Superfund (12 sites) and CAFO (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Apalachin
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 Apalachin average
Your land is one point inside Apalachin
Everything above resolves to Apalachin 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 Apalachin Average
Apalachin Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Apalachin
- ●One soil character for all of Apalachin
- ●Frost dates read at Apalachin's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apalachin's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apalachin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apalachin, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apalachin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apalachin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apalachin average
How we know this about Apalachin
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 Apalachin’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 Apalachin
When does frost risk typically end in Apalachin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apalachin typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Apalachin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apalachin typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apalachin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apalachin sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 6, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apalachin?
The federal record around Apalachin runs heavier than most — 501 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (214), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Apalachin?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apalachin's scale — its 6a band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apalachin'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 Apalachin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Apalachin's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,841 acres it covers and 501 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apalachin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apalachin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 20 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 501 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apalachin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apalachin's boundary and the 1,841 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apalachin's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Apalachinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apalachin's 1,841 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tioga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tioga 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 Tioga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apalachin's 1,841 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apalachin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,841 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 Apalachin-wide figureread your own land →
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