Cranberry Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cranberry Lake, 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 Cranberry Lake 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 Cranberry Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cranberry Lake — the short answer
Cranberry Lake, New York: USDA zone 4a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 4a is Cranberry Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cranberry Lake's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cranberry Lake
Each reading below is measured for Cranberry Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCranberry Lake runs about 151 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
MeasuredCranberry Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Cranberry Lake is in
Cranberry Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Cranberry Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: St. Lawrence County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cranberry Lake
Every plant below cleared Cranberry Lake's own zone 4a and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cranberry Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Cranberry Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cranberry Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cranberry Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cranberry Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENSON MINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CRANBERRY LAKE BIOLOGY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SUNY ESF - RANGER SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CRANBERRY LAKE MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- NYS DOT CRANBERRY LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- ST2291Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- ST1720Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- ST4376Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- SUNY/RANGER SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- PETE'S LAKE FUELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- ST MARYS CATECHETICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- PADGETT'S AGWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cranberry Lake'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 Cranberry Lake.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Cranberry Lake
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cranberry Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cranberry Lake
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 Cranberry Lake
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 Cranberry Lake average
Your land is one point inside Cranberry Lake
Everything above resolves to Cranberry Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 town 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 Cranberry Lake Average
Cranberry Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Cranberry Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Cranberry Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Cranberry Lake's scale: May 8 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cranberry Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cranberry Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cranberry Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cranberry Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cranberry Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cranberry Lake average
How we know this about Cranberry Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cranberry Lake’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Cranberry Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Cranberry Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cranberry Lake typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Cranberry Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cranberry Lake typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cranberry Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cranberry Lake sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 22, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cranberry Lake?
The federal record around Cranberry Lake is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cranberry Lake?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cranberry Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cranberry Lake'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 Cranberry Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cranberry Lake's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,431 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cranberry Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cranberry Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 6 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cranberry Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cranberry Lake's boundary and the 12,431 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cranberry Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cranberry Lake checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cranberry Lake's 12,431 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cranberry Lake's 12,431 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cranberry Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,431 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Cranberry Lake-wide figureread your own land →