Dolgeville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Dolgeville, 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 Dolgeville 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 Dolgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dolgeville — the short answer
Dolgeville, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Dolgeville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dolgeville's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dolgeville
Each reading below is measured for Dolgeville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDolgeville 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
MeasuredDolgeville 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 Dolgeville is in
Dolgeville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dolgeville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Herkimer County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dolgeville
Every plant below cleared Dolgeville'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 Dolgeville?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Dolgeville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dolgeville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dolgeville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dolgeville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLGEVILLE C.S. BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PRODUCERS COOPERATIVE INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- RAWLINGS/ADIRONDACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RAWLINGS-ADIRONDACKBrownfields · 2200 ft
- DPW GARAGE - VILLAGE OF DOLGEVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RAWLINGS/ADIRONDACK KILNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GEORGE LUMBER & BUILDING MATERIALS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BRAD'S REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP. #147Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COMSTOCK AUTOMOTIVE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PARTNERS TRUST PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MANHEIM(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dolgeville'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 Dolgeville.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Dolgeville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dolgeville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dolgeville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dolgeville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dolgeville — CAFO (6 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Dolgeville
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 Dolgeville average
Your land is one point inside Dolgeville
Everything above resolves to Dolgeville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Dolgeville Average
Dolgeville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Dolgeville
- ●One soil character for all of Dolgeville
- ●Frost dates read at Dolgeville's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dolgeville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dolgeville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dolgeville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dolgeville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dolgeville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dolgeville average
How we know this about Dolgeville
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 Dolgeville’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 Dolgeville
When does frost risk typically end in Dolgeville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dolgeville typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Dolgeville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dolgeville typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dolgeville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dolgeville sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 5, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dolgeville?
The federal record around Dolgeville is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dolgeville?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dolgeville's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dolgeville'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 Dolgeville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dolgeville's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,179 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dolgeville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dolgeville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 19 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dolgeville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dolgeville's boundary and the 1,179 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dolgeville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dolgeville 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 Dolgeville's 1,179 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Herkimer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Herkimer 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 Herkimer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dolgeville's 1,179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dolgeville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dolgeville-wide figureread your own land →