Cold Brook, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cold Brook, 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 Cold Brook 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 Cold Brook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cold Brook — the short answer
Cold Brook, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 281 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 281 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 Cold Brook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cold Brook's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cold Brook
Each reading below is measured for Cold Brook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCold Brook runs about 173 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
MeasuredCold Brook 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 Cold Brook is in
Cold Brook sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cold Brook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Herkimer County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cold Brook
Every plant below cleared Cold Brook's own zone 5a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cold Brook?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Cold Brook
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cold Brook checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cold Brook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cold Brook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POLAND CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LEIGH W. AGNE FARM ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- POLAND NY ASBESTOS DUMPSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP #175Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- POLAND UNION ASBESTOSSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- POLAND REALTY, LLC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- B W E ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BRAD WEAKLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- KUYAHOORA OUTDOOR CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- RUSSIA(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PERFEX CORPBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- PERFEX CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cold Brook'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 Cold Brook.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Cold Brook
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cold Brook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cold Brook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cold Brook, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cold Brook — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cold Brook
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 Cold Brook average
Your land is one point inside Cold Brook
Everything above resolves to Cold Brook as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 281 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 Cold Brook Average
Cold Brook Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Cold Brook
- ●One soil character for all of Cold Brook
- ●Frost dates read at Cold Brook's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cold Brook's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cold Brook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cold Brook, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cold Brook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cold Brook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cold Brook average
How we know this about Cold Brook
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 Cold Brook’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 Cold Brook
When does frost risk typically end in Cold Brook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cold Brook typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cold Brook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cold Brook typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cold Brook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cold Brook sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 4, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cold Brook?
The federal record around Cold Brook is a meaningful one — 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Cold Brook?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cold Brook's scale — its 5a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cold Brook'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 Cold Brook’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cold Brook's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 281 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cold Brook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cold Brook's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 18 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cold Brook, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cold Brook's boundary and the 281 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cold Brook sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cold Brook 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 Cold Brook's 281 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Herkimer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Herkimer 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 Herkimer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cold Brook's 281 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cold Brook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 281 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Cold Brook-wide figureread your own land →
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