Au Sable Forks, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Au Sable Forks, 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 Au Sable Forks 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 Au Sable Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Au Sable Forks — the short answer
Au Sable Forks, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- 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 5a is Au Sable Forks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Au Sable Forks's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Au Sable Forks
Each reading below is measured for Au Sable Forks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAu Sable Forks runs about 171 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
MeasuredAu Sable Forks 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 Au Sable Forks is in
Au Sable Forks sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Au Sable Forks'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 Au Sable Forks
Every plant below cleared Au Sable Forks's own zone 5a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Au Sable Forks?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Au Sable Forks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Au Sable Forks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 54 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Au Sable Forks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Au Sable Forks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DRAKES GAS & GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TOWN OF BLACK BROOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HOMETOWN DELI & BAKERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SNOW'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP 256Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #10495Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- M&M DINERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROD'S GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SONNY'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AUSABLE MINI-MART #079Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOLY NAME CHURCH & SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TOWN OF JAY COMMUNITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Au Sable Forks'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 Au Sable Forks.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Au Sable Forks
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Au Sable Forks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Au Sable Forks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Au Sable Forks, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Au Sable Forks. 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 Au Sable Forks
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 Au Sable Forks average
Your land is one point inside Au Sable Forks
Everything above resolves to Au Sable Forks 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 Au Sable Forks Average
Au Sable Forks Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Au Sable Forks
- ●One soil character for all of Au Sable Forks
- ●Frost dates read at Au Sable Forks's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Au Sable Forks's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Au Sable Forks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Au Sable Forks, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Au Sable Forks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Au Sable Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Au Sable Forks average
How we know this about Au Sable Forks
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 Au Sable Forks’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 Au Sable Forks
When does frost risk typically end in Au Sable Forks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Au Sable Forks 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 Au Sable Forks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Au Sable Forks 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 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Au Sable Forks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Au Sable Forks sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 1, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Au Sable Forks?
The federal record around Au Sable Forks shows 81 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Au Sable Forks?
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 Au Sable Forks's scale — its 5a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Au Sable Forks'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 Au Sable Forks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Au Sable Forks's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,586 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Au Sable Forks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Au Sable Forks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 15 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Au Sable Forks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Au Sable Forks's boundary and the 1,586 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Au Sable Forks sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Au Sable Forks 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 Au Sable Forks's 1,586 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 Au Sable Forks's 1,586 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Au Sable Forks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,586 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Au Sable Forks-wide figureread your own land →