Erie County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Erie County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Erie 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 Erie County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Erie County — the short answer
Erie County, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 204 days between hard freezes, across 667K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~204
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 667K 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 6a is Erie County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Erie County's 204-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Erie County's hard-freeze record runs about 204 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Holland at about 173 days (against the county's ~204).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~204-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Erie County
Across a year, Erie County accumulates about 2,327 growing degree days above 50°F, about 91 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 37 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 Erie County
Across Erie County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Mardin, Volusia, and Niagara are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
13%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Erie County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Erie County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 48% drains differently: 21% moderately well drained, 11% well drained.
Mardin is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Volusia (6%) and Niagara (5%).
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 Erie County
Each reading below is measured for Erie 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 Erie County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Erie County runs about pH 5.5–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredErie County runs about 204 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredErie County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Erie County is in
Erie County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands (60%) and Northern Allegheny Plateau (40%). 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 Erie County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Erie County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 204-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 Erie County?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Erie County
Spotted lanternfly documented 9 miles from Erie County, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle20 documented records
- monarch butterfly165 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Erie County
USGS estimates 33,888 lb of Glyphosate on Erie County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (28,246 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (17,084 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 Erie County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Erie County — 4,201 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 66 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 Erie 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 Erie County
Closest first, across Erie County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NYSDOT BIN 1062880Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1092230Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1092240Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- POLYMER CONVERSIONSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1063010Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- ERIE COMMUNITY COLLEGE - COBHAM CAMPUSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1092220Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- OLEAN GATEWAY CO KT DEVELOPMENTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CARLETON TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CARLETON TECHNOLOGIESToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- MISSION SYSTEM ORCHARD PARK INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ITT INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Erie 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 Erie County.
Severity Distribution
across Erie County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Erie County, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 66 sites across Erie County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Erie 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 Erie County average
Your land is one point inside Erie County
Everything above resolves to Erie County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 667K 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 Erie County Average
Erie County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Erie County
- ●One soil character for all of Erie County
- ●Frost dates read at Erie County's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Erie County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Erie County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Erie County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Erie County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Erie County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Erie County average
How we know this about Erie 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 Erie County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Erie County
When does frost risk typically end in Erie County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Erie County typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Erie County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Erie County sees about 204 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 25, about 169 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Erie County?
The federal record around Erie County is a meaningful one — 4,201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,051), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Erie County's scale — its 6a band and its 204-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Erie 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 Erie County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Erie County's own scale — its own ~204-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 4,201 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Erie County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Erie County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~204-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Erie CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 4,201 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Erie County's boundary and the 667,368 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~204-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Erie County spans, Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Erie County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Erie 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 Erie County — the ~204 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 Erie County's 667,368 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 4,201 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 Erie Countyread your own land →