Cape Vincent, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cape Vincent, 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 Cape Vincent 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 Cape Vincent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cape Vincent — the short answer
Cape Vincent, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 450 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 450 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 5b is Cape Vincent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Vincent's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape Vincent
Each reading below is measured for Cape Vincent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCape Vincent runs about 206 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
MeasuredCape Vincent sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Cape Vincent is in
Cape Vincent sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Vincent's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Cape Vincent
Every plant below cleared Cape Vincent's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cape Vincent?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Cape Vincent
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cape Vincent checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 74 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cape Vincent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Vincent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAPE VINCENT ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CAPE VINCENT(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CAPE VINCENT(V) DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CAPE DAIRY, MOTEL & LAUNDROMATUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SEAWAY PILOT INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- MICHAEL M. GILMOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- VILLAGE SHIPYARDS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GAULT'S BAIT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ANCHOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CAPE VINCENT MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CAPE VINCENT FISHERIES STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1010150Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Vincent'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 Cape Vincent.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Cape Vincent
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Vincent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Vincent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cape Vincent, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Cape Vincent. 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 Cape Vincent
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 Cape Vincent average
Your land is one point inside Cape Vincent
Everything above resolves to Cape Vincent as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 450 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 Cape Vincent Average
Cape Vincent Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cape Vincent
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Vincent
- ●Frost dates read at Cape Vincent's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Vincent's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Vincent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Vincent, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Vincent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Vincent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Vincent average
How we know this about Cape Vincent
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 Cape Vincent’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 Cape Vincent
When does frost risk typically end in Cape Vincent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Vincent typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Cape Vincent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cape Vincent typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cape Vincent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cape Vincent sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 24, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cape Vincent?
The federal record around Cape Vincent is light — 31 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cape Vincent?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cape Vincent's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Vincent'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 Cape Vincent’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cape Vincent's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 450 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Vincent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cape Vincent's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 7 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Vincent, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Vincent's boundary and the 450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cape Vincent's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cape Vincent 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 Cape Vincent's 450 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 Cape Vincent's 450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Vincent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 450 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 Cape Vincent-wide figureread your own land →