Albany County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Albany County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Albany County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Albany County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Albany County — the short answer
Albany County, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 335K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 335K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Albany County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Albany County's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Albany County
Across a year, Albany County accumulates about 2,254 growing degree days above 50°F, about 18 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 33 of New York’s 62 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Albany County
Across Albany County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Nunda, Burdett, and Hudson are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
19%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Albany County
The USDA soil survey maps 34% of Albany County as moderately well drained — but another 60% drains differently: 18% somewhat poorly drained, 18% somewhat excessively drained.
Nunda is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Burdett (10%) and Hudson (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Albany County
Each reading below is measured for Albany County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Albany County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Albany County runs about pH 5.3–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredAlbany County runs about 184 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
MeasuredAlbany County 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 Albany County is in
Albany County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northeastern Coastal Zone (45%), Northern Allegheny Plateau (40%) and Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands (16%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Albany County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Albany County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 184-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New York profile.
Is it too late to plant in Albany County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Albany County
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Albany County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly323 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Albany County
USGS estimates 2,432 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Albany County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,350 lb) and Atrazine (1,764 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Albany County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Albany County — 1,704 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 13 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Albany County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Albany County
Closest first, across Albany County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEALE DUNSTON BODY & FENDERBrownfields · 2200 ft
- HILL TOP FARM INCCAFO · 0.7 mi
- STEWART'S SHOP NO. 277Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP POLE 471 SPILL 2500094Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- BENTON RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MAC-SON INDUSTRIAL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CLARKSVILLE COMMUNITY CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CLARKSVILLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TOWN OF NEW SCOTLAND HWY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TOWN OF BETHLEHEM WATER TREATMENT PLANT-VLY CREEKBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- TOWN OF BETHLEHEM W.T.P.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- A 239Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Albany County'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 Albany County.
Severity Distribution
across Albany County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Albany County
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 Albany County average
Your land is one point inside Albany County
Everything above resolves to Albany County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 335K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Albany County Average
Albany County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Albany County
- ●One soil character for all of Albany County
- ●Frost dates read at Albany County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Albany County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Albany County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Albany County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Albany County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Albany County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Albany County average
How we know this about Albany County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Albany County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Albany County
When does frost risk typically end in Albany County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Albany County typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Albany County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Albany County sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 7, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Albany County?
The federal record around Albany County is a meaningful one — 1,704 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (845), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Albany County's scale — its 5b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Albany County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New York's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Albany County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Albany County's own scale — its own ~184-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,704 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Albany County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Albany County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Albany CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,704 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Albany County's boundary and the 334,648 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Albany County spans, Northeastern Coastal Zone the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Albany County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Albany County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New York grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New York
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Albany County — the ~184 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Albany County's 334,648 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,704 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Albany Countyread your own land →