DeKalb Junction, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in DeKalb Junction, 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 DeKalb Junction 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 DeKalb Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
DeKalb Junction — the short answer
DeKalb Junction, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 4b is DeKalb Junction's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeKalb Junction's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeKalb Junction
Each reading below is measured for DeKalb Junction itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeKalb Junction runs about 182 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
MeasuredDeKalb Junction sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 DeKalb Junction is in
DeKalb Junction sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeKalb Junction's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in DeKalb Junction
Every plant below cleared DeKalb Junction's own zone 4b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeKalb Junction?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around DeKalb Junction
Survey cells within 31 miles of DeKalb Junction checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 73 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near DeKalb Junction
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeKalb Junction. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOOPY'S COFFEE & VARIETY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 10142Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- FORMER DALE'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DEKALB(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HERMON-DEKALB CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- D&L GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SCHOFELL RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- GEBARTEN ACRES OPERATION LLCCAFO · 2.8 mi
- CORNING - CANTON PLANTBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CORNING - CANTON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- TACCHINO'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeKalb Junction'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 DeKalb Junction.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of DeKalb Junction
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeKalb Junction
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeKalb Junction
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeKalb Junction, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of DeKalb Junction — CAFO (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (71 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in DeKalb Junction
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 DeKalb Junction average
Your land is one point inside DeKalb Junction
Everything above resolves to DeKalb Junction as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 DeKalb Junction Average
DeKalb Junction Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across DeKalb Junction
- ●One soil character for all of DeKalb Junction
- ●Frost dates read at DeKalb Junction's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeKalb Junction's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeKalb Junction
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeKalb Junction, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeKalb Junction averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeKalb Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeKalb Junction average
How we know this about DeKalb Junction
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 DeKalb Junction’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 DeKalb Junction
When does frost risk typically end in DeKalb Junction?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeKalb Junction typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in DeKalb Junction?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeKalb Junction typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeKalb Junction?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeKalb Junction sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 8, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeKalb Junction?
The federal record around DeKalb Junction shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in DeKalb Junction?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeKalb Junction's scale — its 4b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeKalb Junction'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 DeKalb Junction’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at DeKalb Junction's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,548 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeKalb Junction's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeKalb Junction's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 22 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeKalb Junction, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeKalb Junction's boundary and the 2,548 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeKalb Junction's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around DeKalb Junction 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 DeKalb Junction's 2,548 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 DeKalb Junction's 2,548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeKalb Junction you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,548 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 DeKalb Junction-wide figureread your own land →