Oneida County, in 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Oneida County lies within the Mohawk Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Oneida County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Oneida 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 Oneida County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Oneida County — the short answer
Oneida County, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 776K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 776K 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 Oneida County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oneida County's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Oneida County
Across a year, Oneida County accumulates about 2,307 growing degree days above 50°F, about 71 more than the middle New York county — ahead of 35 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 Oneida County
Across Oneida County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Kendaia, Adams, and Worth are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.8–6.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
27%
Hydric soils
14%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Oneida County
The USDA soil survey maps 24% of Oneida County as well drained — but another 72% drains differently: 22% moderately well drained, 21% somewhat poorly drained.
Kendaia is the most extensive named soil at 6% of mapped acres, then Adams (5%) and Worth (4%).
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 Oneida County
Each reading below is measured for Oneida 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 Oneida County are well drained, in hydrologic group B/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Oneida County runs about pH 4.8–6.3, 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
MeasuredOneida County runs about 188 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
MeasuredOneida 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 Oneida County is in
Oneida County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands (64%), Northeastern Highlands (29%) and Northern Allegheny Plateau (7%). 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 Oneida County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Oneida County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 188-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 Oneida 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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Oneida County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oneida County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 37 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle9 documented records
- monarch butterfly196 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Oneida County
USGS estimates 52,621 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Oneida County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor-s (42,447 lb) and Glyphosate (36,660 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 Oneida County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Oneida County — 1,723 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 24 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 Oneida 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 Oneida County
Closest first, across Oneida County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWISS RIDGE MILLS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- RIDGE MILLS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SID STOCKHOLM FORD LINCOLN MERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROME(C) OUTSIDE HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SID STOCKHOLM L/M INCToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- SEARS OIL TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SEARS OIL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SPEEDWAY 7681Brownfields · 2600 ft
- SPEEDWAY # 7681Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #6434Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #3147Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oneida 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 Oneida County.
Severity Distribution
across Oneida County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oneida County, two things run higher than the national average across Oneida County — CAFO (24 sites) and Superfund (24 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Oneida 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 Oneida County average
Your land is one point inside Oneida County
Everything above resolves to Oneida County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 776K 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 Oneida County Average
Oneida County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Oneida County
- ●One soil character for all of Oneida County
- ●Frost dates read at Oneida County's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oneida County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Oneida County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oneida County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oneida County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oneida County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oneida County average
How we know this about Oneida 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 Oneida County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Oneida County
When does frost risk typically end in Oneida County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oneida County typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Oneida County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oneida County sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 13, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oneida County?
The federal record around Oneida County is a meaningful one — 1,723 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,017), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Oneida County's scale — its 5b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oneida 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 Oneida County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Oneida County's own scale — its own ~188-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,723 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oneida County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oneida County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Oneida CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,723 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Oneida County's boundary and the 775,962 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Oneida County spans, Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Oneida County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Oneida 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 Oneida County — the ~188 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 Oneida County's 775,962 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,723 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 Oneida Countyread your own land →