Dannemora, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Dannemora, 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 Dannemora 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 Dannemora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dannemora — the short answer
Dannemora, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 772 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 772 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 5a is Dannemora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dannemora's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dannemora
Each reading below is measured for Dannemora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDannemora 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
MeasuredDannemora sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Dannemora is in
Dannemora sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Dannemora's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clinton County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dannemora
Every plant below cleared Dannemora's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dannemora?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Dannemora
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dannemora checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 70 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dannemora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dannemora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITYPFAS · 150 ft
- DANNEMORA UNION FREE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CL 193Nitrate · 850 ft
- CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CLINTON CORRECTIONAL FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #207Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VILLAGE OF DANNEMORAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DANNEMORA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- VILLAGE DANNEMORA GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUBURBAN PROPANE HEATING OIL PARTNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #10635Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dannemora'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 Dannemora.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Dannemora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dannemora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dannemora
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dannemora, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Dannemora. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dannemora
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 Dannemora average
Your land is one point inside Dannemora
Everything above resolves to Dannemora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 772 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 Dannemora Average
Dannemora Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dannemora
- ●One soil character for all of Dannemora
- ●Frost dates read at Dannemora's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dannemora's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dannemora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dannemora, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dannemora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dannemora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dannemora average
How we know this about Dannemora
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 Dannemora’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 Dannemora
When does frost risk typically end in Dannemora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dannemora typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Dannemora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dannemora typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dannemora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dannemora sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 3, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dannemora?
The federal record around Dannemora is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dannemora?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dannemora's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dannemora'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 Dannemora’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dannemora's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 772 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dannemora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dannemora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 17 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dannemora, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dannemora's boundary and the 772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dannemora sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dannemora 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 Dannemora's 772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dannemora's 772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dannemora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dannemora-wide figureread your own land →