Cortland, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cortland, 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 Cortland 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 Cortland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cortland — the short answer
Cortland, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Cortland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cortland's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cortland
Each reading below is measured for Cortland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCortland runs about 182 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
MeasuredCortland 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 Cortland is in
Cortland sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cortland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cortland County.
What Grows in Cortland
Every plant below cleared Cortland's own zone 5b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cortland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Cortland
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Cortland, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cortland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cortland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSEG - CORTLAND SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 600 ft
- NYSEG - CORTLAND PIPE YARDBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2135Brownfields · 1200 ft
- GRAPHTEXBrownfields · 1400 ft
- NORTHEAST TRANSFORMER SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CONTENTO AUTO SALESBrownfields · 2000 ft
- VOYANT BEAUTYToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- BUCKBEE-MEARSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- BUCKBEE-MEARSToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- BUCKBEE-MEARSSuperfund · 2200 ft
- HESS CORPORATIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
- CORTLAND LINE CO INCBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cortland'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 Cortland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cortland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cortland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cortland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cortland — CAFO (27 sites) and Nitrate (130 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 Cortland
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 Cortland average
Your land is one point inside Cortland
Everything above resolves to Cortland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Cortland Average
Cortland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cortland
- ●One soil character for all of Cortland
- ●Frost dates read at Cortland's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cortland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cortland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cortland, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cortland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cortland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cortland average
How we know this about Cortland
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cortland’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Cortland
When does frost risk typically end in Cortland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cortland typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Cortland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cortland typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cortland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cortland sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 9, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cortland?
The federal record around Cortland is a meaningful one — 331 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Brownfields 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 Cortland?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cortland's scale — its 5b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cortland'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 Cortland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cortland's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,492 acres it covers and 331 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cortland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cortland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 23 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 331 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cortland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cortland's boundary and the 2,492 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cortland's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Cortlandlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cortland's 2,492 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cortland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cortland 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 Cortland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cortland's 2,492 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cortland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,492 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Cortland-wide figureread your own land →
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