Dryden, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Dryden, 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 Dryden 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 Dryden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dryden — the short answer
Dryden, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- 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 5b is Dryden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dryden's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dryden
Each reading below is measured for Dryden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDryden runs about 178 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
MeasuredDryden 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 Dryden is in
Dryden sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dryden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tompkins County.
What Grows in Dryden
Every plant below cleared Dryden's own zone 5b and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dryden?
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 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 22 — 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 Dryden
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Dryden, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dryden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dryden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIRABITO #113Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- ESTATE OF NORRIS CRISPELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CASWELL ROAD LANDFILL MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PETR-ALL CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DRYDEN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- NEPTUNE HOSE CO NO 1 OF DRYDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DRYDEN FOOD MARKET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VILLAGE OF DRYDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EXPRESS MART #351Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MAINTENANCE BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TM1046Nitrate · 2500 ft
- STAFFORD CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dryden'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 Dryden.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dryden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dryden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dryden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dryden — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (148 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dryden
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 Dryden average
Your land is one point inside Dryden
Everything above resolves to Dryden 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 Dryden Average
Dryden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Dryden
- ●One soil character for all of Dryden
- ●Frost dates read at Dryden's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dryden's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dryden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dryden, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dryden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dryden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dryden average
How we know this about Dryden
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 Dryden’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 Dryden
When does frost risk typically end in Dryden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dryden 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 Dryden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dryden 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 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dryden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dryden sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 8, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dryden?
The federal record around Dryden is a meaningful one — 372 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (148), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dryden?
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 Dryden's scale — its 5b band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dryden'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 Dryden’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dryden's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,124 acres it covers and 372 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dryden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dryden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 22 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 372 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dryden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dryden's boundary and the 1,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dryden's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Drydenlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dryden's 1,124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tompkins County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tompkins 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 Tompkins County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dryden's 1,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dryden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,124 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dryden-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides