Cohocton, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Cohocton, 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 Cohocton 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 Cohocton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cohocton — the short answer
Cohocton, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 961 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- 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
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 961 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 Cohocton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cohocton's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cohocton
Each reading below is measured for Cohocton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCohocton runs about 163 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
MeasuredCohocton 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 Cohocton is in
Cohocton sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cohocton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Steuben County.
What Grows in Cohocton
Every plant below cleared Cohocton's own zone 5b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cohocton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Cohocton
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Cohocton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cohocton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cohocton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB 224Nitrate · 700 ft
- POLLIO DAIRY PRODS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- WAYLAND COHOCTON CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STEUBEN COUNTY DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- TOWN OF COHOCTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1011440Brownfields · 1600 ft
- VAN WORMER'S ARCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BIRKETT MILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- THE STORY HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SPALLINA MATERIALS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COHOCTON VALLEY MOTORSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- COHOCTON VALLEY MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cohocton'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 Cohocton.
Total Sites
168
within ~10 miles of Cohocton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cohocton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cohocton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cohocton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cohocton — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (48 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cohocton
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 Cohocton average
Your land is one point inside Cohocton
Everything above resolves to Cohocton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 961 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 Cohocton Average
Cohocton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cohocton
- ●One soil character for all of Cohocton
- ●Frost dates read at Cohocton's scale: May 5 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cohocton's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cohocton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cohocton, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cohocton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cohocton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cohocton average
How we know this about Cohocton
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 Cohocton’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 Cohocton
When does frost risk typically end in Cohocton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cohocton typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Cohocton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cohocton 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 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cohocton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cohocton sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 1, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cohocton?
The federal record around Cohocton is a meaningful one — 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cohocton?
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 Cohocton's scale — its 5b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cohocton'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 Cohocton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cohocton's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 961 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cohocton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cohocton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 15 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cohocton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cohocton's boundary and the 961 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cohocton's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cohoctonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cohocton's 961 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Steuben County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Steuben 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 Steuben County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cohocton's 961 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cohocton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 961 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Cohocton-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides