Ellisburg, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ellisburg, 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 Ellisburg 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 Ellisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ellisburg — the short answer
Ellisburg, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 641 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 641 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 Ellisburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ellisburg's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ellisburg
Each reading below is measured for Ellisburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEllisburg runs about 197 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
MeasuredEllisburg 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 Ellisburg is in
Ellisburg sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ellisburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Ellisburg
Every plant below cleared Ellisburg's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ellisburg?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Ellisburg
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ellisburg checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 46 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ellisburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ellisburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOHAWK HOME COMFORT SERVICES - ADAMS BRBrownfields · 2400 ft
- ELLISBURG(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- J 784Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- DOUBLEDALE FARM LLCCAFO · 0.9 mi
- HI HOPE FARM LLCCAFO · 1.2 mi
- CTS DAIRYCAFO · 1.3 mi
- GOODNOUGH FARM LLCCAFO · 1.6 mi
- EASTMAN DAIRY FARMCAFO · 1.7 mi
- LOCUST HILL DAIRY, LLC.CAFO · 2.4 mi
- HILLCREST FARMSCAFO · 2.8 mi
- BELLE WOOD FARMSCAFO · 3.0 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1032000Brownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ellisburg'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 Ellisburg.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Ellisburg
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ellisburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ellisburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ellisburg, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Ellisburg. 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 Ellisburg
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 Ellisburg average
Your land is one point inside Ellisburg
Everything above resolves to Ellisburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 641 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 Ellisburg Average
Ellisburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ellisburg
- ●One soil character for all of Ellisburg
- ●Frost dates read at Ellisburg's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ellisburg's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ellisburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ellisburg, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ellisburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ellisburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ellisburg average
How we know this about Ellisburg
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 Ellisburg’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 Ellisburg
When does frost risk typically end in Ellisburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ellisburg typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Ellisburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ellisburg typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ellisburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ellisburg sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 18, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ellisburg?
The federal record around Ellisburg shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Ellisburg?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ellisburg's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ellisburg'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 Ellisburg’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ellisburg's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 641 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ellisburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ellisburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Nov 1 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ellisburg, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ellisburg's boundary and the 641 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ellisburg's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ellisburg 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 Ellisburg's 641 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 Ellisburg's 641 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ellisburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 641 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Ellisburg-wide figureread your own land →