Schuyler County, in New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Schuyler County lies within the Finger Lakes — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Schuyler County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Schuyler 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 Schuyler County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Schuyler County — the short answer
Schuyler County, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 210K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 210K 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 Schuyler County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schuyler County's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Schuyler County
Across a year, Schuyler County accumulates about 2,183 growing degree days above 50°F, about 53 fewer than the middle New York county — ahead of 26 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 Schuyler County
Across Schuyler County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Volusia, Mardin, and Valois are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Schuyler County
The USDA soil survey maps 31% of Schuyler County as well drained — but another 63% drains differently: 31% somewhat poorly drained, 26% moderately well drained.
Volusia is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Mardin (17%) and Valois (8%).
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 Schuyler County
Each reading below is measured for Schuyler 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 Schuyler County are well drained, in hydrologic group 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 Schuyler County runs about pH 5.5–6.3, 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
MeasuredSchuyler County runs about 175 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
MeasuredSchuyler 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 Schuyler County is in
Schuyler County sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Schuyler County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Schuyler County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 175-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 Schuyler 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 Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Schuyler County
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Schuyler County, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle2 documented records
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Schuyler County
USGS estimates 8,733 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Schuyler County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (8,106 lb) and Metolachlor-s (7,975 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 Schuyler County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Schuyler County — 155 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Schuyler County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Schuyler County
Closest first, across Schuyler County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF READINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1010920Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SY 268Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- TEXAS EASTERN PRODUCTS PIPELINE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- L P TRANSPORTATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SENECA LAKE STORAGE PROJECTBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- US SALT, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- U S SALT - WATKINS GLEN REFINERYBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- U S SALT - WATKINS GLEN REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- SY 433Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISION DUNDEE CSBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- COLUMBIA GAS TRANSMISSION CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schuyler 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 Schuyler County.
Total Sites
155
across Schuyler County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Schuyler County
Severity Distribution
across Schuyler County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schuyler County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 8 sites across Schuyler County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Schuyler 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 Schuyler County average
Your land is one point inside Schuyler County
Everything above resolves to Schuyler County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 210K 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 Schuyler County Average
Schuyler County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Schuyler County
- ●One soil character for all of Schuyler County
- ●Frost dates read at Schuyler County's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schuyler County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Schuyler County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schuyler County, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schuyler County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schuyler County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schuyler County average
How we know this about Schuyler 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 Schuyler County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Schuyler County
When does frost risk typically end in Schuyler County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schuyler County typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Schuyler County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schuyler County sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 8, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schuyler County?
The federal record around Schuyler County shows 155 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Schuyler County's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schuyler 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 Schuyler County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Schuyler County's own scale — its own ~175-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 155 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schuyler County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schuyler County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Schuyler CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 155 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Schuyler County's boundary and the 210,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Schuyler County sitting wholly inside the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Schuyler County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Schuyler 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 Schuyler County — the ~175 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 Schuyler County's 210,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 155 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 Schuyler Countyread your own land →