Dansville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dansville, 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 Dansville 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 Dansville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dansville — the short answer
Dansville, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is Dansville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dansville's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dansville
Each reading below is measured for Dansville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDansville runs about 183 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
MeasuredDansville 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 Dansville is in
Dansville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dansville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Livingston County.
What Grows in Dansville
Every plant below cleared Dansville's own zone 6a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dansville?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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 Dansville
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from Dansville, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dansville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dansville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CVS PHARMACY #5072Brownfields · 150 ft
- VAN HYNING'S SERVICE OF DANSVILLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- VILLAGE GAS MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- NORMA EBERT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- VILLAGE OF DANSVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DANSVILLE AUTO PARTS INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 3707Brownfields · 650 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6217Brownfields · 1000 ft
- NEW VILLAGE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DANSVILLE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DANSVILLE CENTRAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC & GAS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dansville'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 Dansville.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Dansville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dansville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dansville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dansville, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Dansville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Dansville
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 Dansville average
Your land is one point inside Dansville
Everything above resolves to Dansville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dansville Average
Dansville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Dansville
- ●One soil character for all of Dansville
- ●Frost dates read at Dansville's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dansville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dansville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dansville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dansville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dansville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dansville average
How we know this about Dansville
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 Dansville’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 Dansville
When does frost risk typically end in Dansville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dansville typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Dansville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dansville typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dansville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dansville sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 12, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dansville?
The federal record around Dansville shows 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dansville?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dansville's scale — its 6a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dansville'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 Dansville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dansville's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,669 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dansville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dansville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 26 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dansville, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dansville's boundary and the 1,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dansville's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Dansvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dansville's 1,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Livingston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Livingston 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 Livingston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dansville's 1,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dansville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,669 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Dansville-wide figureread your own land →
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