Chateaugay, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chateaugay, 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 Chateaugay 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 Chateaugay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chateaugay — the short answer
Chateaugay, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 693 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- 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
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 693 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 Chateaugay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chateaugay's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Chateaugay's own 30-year record measures about 178 days between 28°F killing freezes — 35 days longer than Franklin County's ~143. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Chateaugay's ~178-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chateaugay
Each reading below is measured for Chateaugay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChateaugay runs about 178 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
MeasuredChateaugay 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 Chateaugay is in
Chateaugay sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chateaugay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chateaugay
Every plant below cleared Chateaugay's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chateaugay?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (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. 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 Chateaugay
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chateaugay checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 79 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chateaugay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chateaugay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATLANTIC REF. & MKTG. #0364-0554Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CHATEAUGAY AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- DON PATNODE MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CHATEAUGAY TOWN HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- EMPSALLI DEPARTMENT STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #137Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GURU PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CHATEAUGAY TOWN GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CHATEAUGAY CENTRAL SCHOOL & TRANS. FAC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- AGRI-MARK INC MCCADAM PLANTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- AGRI-MARK INC MCCADAM PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- TRI COUNTY MILK MOVERS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chateaugay'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 Chateaugay.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Chateaugay
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chateaugay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chateaugay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chateaugay, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Chateaugay. 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 Chateaugay
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 Chateaugay average
Your land is one point inside Chateaugay
Everything above resolves to Chateaugay as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Chateaugay Average
Chateaugay Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Chateaugay
- ●One soil character for all of Chateaugay
- ●Frost dates read at Chateaugay's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chateaugay's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chateaugay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chateaugay, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chateaugay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chateaugay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chateaugay average
How we know this about Chateaugay
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 Chateaugay’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 Chateaugay
When does frost risk typically end in Chateaugay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chateaugay typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Chateaugay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chateaugay 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chateaugay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chateaugay sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 6, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chateaugay?
The federal record around Chateaugay shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Chateaugay?
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 Chateaugay's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chateaugay'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 Chateaugay’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chateaugay's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 693 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chateaugay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chateaugay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 20 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chateaugay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chateaugay's boundary and the 693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chateaugay sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chateaugay 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 Chateaugay's 693 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chateaugay's 693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chateaugay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 693 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Chateaugay-wide figureread your own land →
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