Camillus, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camillus, 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 Camillus 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 Camillus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camillus — the short answer
Camillus, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 260 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 260 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 Camillus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camillus's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camillus
Each reading below is measured for Camillus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCamillus runs about 204 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCamillus 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 Camillus is in
Camillus sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Camillus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onondaga County.
What Grows in Camillus
Every plant below cleared Camillus's own zone 6a and its 204-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Camillus?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Camillus
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Camillus, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Camillus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camillus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMILLUS CUTLERY COToxics Release Inventory · 200 ft
- CAMILLUS CUTLERY COBrownfields · 200 ft
- RUNWAY FOOD MART #20Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- A & R AUTO SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TOWN OF CAMILLUS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CAMILLUS HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GTE PRODUCTS OF CONNECTICUTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MANORCREST FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GTE PRODUCTS OF CONNECTICUT CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CAMILLUS PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camillus'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 Camillus.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camillus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camillus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camillus, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Camillus. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Camillus
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 Camillus average
Your land is one point inside Camillus
Everything above resolves to Camillus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 260 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 Camillus Average
Camillus Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Camillus
- ●One soil character for all of Camillus
- ●Frost dates read at Camillus's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camillus's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camillus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camillus, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camillus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camillus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camillus average
How we know this about Camillus
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 Camillus’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 Camillus
When does frost risk typically end in Camillus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camillus typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Camillus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camillus typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 204 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Camillus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camillus sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 20, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camillus?
The federal record around Camillus is a meaningful one — 1,321 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (657), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Camillus?
From about Oct 4 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 Nov 3 (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 Nov 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Camillus's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camillus'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 Camillus’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Camillus's own scale — its own ~204-day season between 28°F freezes, the 260 acres it covers and 1,321 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camillus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camillus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 3 and the ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,321 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camillus, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camillus's boundary and the 260 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Camillus's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Camilluslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Camillus's 260 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Onondaga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Onondaga 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 Onondaga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camillus's 260 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camillus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 260 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Camillus-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkCamillus sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.