DeRuyter, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in DeRuyter, 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 DeRuyter 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 DeRuyter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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DeRuyter — the short answer
DeRuyter, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 236 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 236 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 5b is DeRuyter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeRuyter's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeRuyter
Each reading below is measured for DeRuyter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDeRuyter runs about 171 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
MeasuredDeRuyter sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 DeRuyter is in
DeRuyter sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeRuyter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in DeRuyter
Every plant below cleared DeRuyter's own zone 5b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeRuyter?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around DeRuyter
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from DeRuyter, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near DeRuyter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeRuyter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HERMAN'S MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- QUINCY SQUARE INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- DERUYTER CENTRAL SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SUBURBAN PROPANE HEATING OIL PARTNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DERUYTER CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE #7396Brownfields · 1300 ft
- M 288Nitrate · 1400 ft
- QUINCY SQUARE. INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DERUYTER BIG MUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARTIN BROWNGARDT SERVICE STNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EGTS - DERUYTER MEASURING & REGULATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 7-990917 WAKEFIELD STORAGE TANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeRuyter'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 DeRuyter.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeRuyter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeRuyter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeRuyter, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of DeRuyter. 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 DeRuyter
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 DeRuyter average
Your land is one point inside DeRuyter
Everything above resolves to DeRuyter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 236 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 DeRuyter Average
DeRuyter Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across DeRuyter
- ●One soil character for all of DeRuyter
- ●Frost dates read at DeRuyter's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeRuyter's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeRuyter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeRuyter, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeRuyter averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeRuyter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeRuyter average
How we know this about DeRuyter
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 DeRuyter’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 DeRuyter
When does frost risk typically end in DeRuyter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeRuyter 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.
When is the first frost in DeRuyter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeRuyter typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeRuyter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeRuyter sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 4, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeRuyter?
The federal record around DeRuyter is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 DeRuyter?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeRuyter's scale — its 5b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeRuyter'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 DeRuyter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at DeRuyter's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 236 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeRuyter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- DeRuyter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 18 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeRuyter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeRuyter's boundary and the 236 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeRuyter's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of DeRuyterlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DeRuyter's 236 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DeRuyter's 236 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeRuyter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 236 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 DeRuyter-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkDeRuyter sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides