Black River, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Black River, 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 Black River 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 Black River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Black River — the short answer
Black River, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- 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 Black River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black River's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black River
Each reading below is measured for Black River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlack River runs about 182 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
MeasuredBlack River 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 Black River is in
Black River sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Black River
Every plant below cleared Black River's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black River?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Black River
Survey cells within 31 miles of Black River checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 67 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Black River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP. #428Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BLACK RIVER ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1000540Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6904Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- J 267Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- O'DONNELL'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HARMER'S GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BLACK RIVER ELECTRIC GENERATING FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- BLACK RIVER ELECTRIC GENERATING FACILITYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1018930Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- POWELL RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- J1736Nitrate · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black River'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 Black River.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black River, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Black River. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Black River
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 Black River average
Your land is one point inside Black River
Everything above resolves to Black River 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 Black River Average
Black River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Black River
- ●One soil character for all of Black River
- ●Frost dates read at Black River's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black River's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black River, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black River average
How we know this about Black River
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 Black River’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 Black River
When does frost risk typically end in Black River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black River typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Black River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black River typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black River sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 7, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black River?
The federal record around Black River is a meaningful one — 451 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (228), 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 Black River?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Black River's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black River'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 Black River’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Black River's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,140 acres it covers and 451 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Black River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 21 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 451 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black River's boundary and the 1,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Black River's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Black River 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 Black River's 1,140 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black River's 1,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,140 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 Black River-wide figureread your own land →