Dexter, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dexter, 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 Dexter 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 Dexter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dexter — the short answer
Dexter, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 426 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 426 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 Dexter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dexter's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dexter
Each reading below is measured for Dexter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDexter 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
MeasuredDexter 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 Dexter is in
Dexter sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dexter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Dexter
Every plant below cleared Dexter's own zone 5a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dexter?
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 23 — 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 Dexter
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dexter checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 66 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dexter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dexter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TONY'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- J 49Nitrate · 1100 ft
- GENERAL BROWN ELEM. SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DEXTER NEIGHBORHOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- GEN. BROWN DEXTER ELEM BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- J 48Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- GENERAL BROWN BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PECORI PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- GENERAL BROWN JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- BROWNVILLE(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ARTEMIS ENTERPRISES PLUS, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- J 179Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dexter'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 Dexter.
Total Sites
377
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dexter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dexter, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Dexter. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dexter
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 Dexter average
Your land is one point inside Dexter
Everything above resolves to Dexter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 426 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 Dexter Average
Dexter Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dexter
- ●One soil character for all of Dexter
- ●Frost dates read at Dexter's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dexter's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dexter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dexter, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dexter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dexter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dexter average
How we know this about Dexter
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 Dexter’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 Dexter
When does frost risk typically end in Dexter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dexter 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 Dexter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dexter typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dexter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dexter sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 9, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dexter?
The federal record around Dexter is a meaningful one — 377 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (211), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Dexter?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dexter's scale — its 5a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dexter'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 Dexter’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dexter's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 426 acres it covers and 377 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dexter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dexter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 23 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 377 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dexter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dexter's boundary and the 426 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dexter's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dexter 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 Dexter's 426 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dexter's 426 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dexter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 426 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Dexter-wide figureread your own land →