Fonda, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Fonda, 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 Fonda 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 Fonda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fonda — the short answer
Fonda, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 345 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)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 345 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 Fonda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fonda's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fonda
Each reading below is measured for Fonda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFonda runs about 189 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
MeasuredFonda 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 Fonda is in
Fonda sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fonda's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Fonda
Every plant below cleared Fonda's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fonda?
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 Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Fonda
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Fonda, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fonda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fonda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY ANNEX BUILDINGBrownfields · 100 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3183Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- TOWN OF MOHAWK HIGHWAY DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FAIRWAY OIL CO., INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- NYS CANAL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MONTGOMERY COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITYBrownfields · 750 ft
- TRAVEL BY BROWNBrownfields · 950 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3267Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CUMBERLAND FARMS 3267Brownfields · 1000 ft
- SANDUSKY BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NYS DOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fonda'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 Fonda.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fonda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fonda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fonda, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fonda — CAFO (16 sites) and Superfund (20 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 Fonda
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 Fonda average
Your land is one point inside Fonda
Everything above resolves to Fonda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 345 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 Fonda Average
Fonda Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Fonda
- ●One soil character for all of Fonda
- ●Frost dates read at Fonda's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fonda's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fonda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fonda, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fonda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fonda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fonda average
How we know this about Fonda
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 Fonda’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 Fonda
When does frost risk typically end in Fonda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fonda 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 Fonda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fonda typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fonda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fonda sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 10, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fonda?
The federal record around Fonda is a meaningful one — 522 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (236), the nearest Brownfields 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 Fonda?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fonda's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fonda'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 Fonda’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fonda's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 345 acres it covers and 522 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fonda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fonda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 24 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 522 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fonda, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fonda's boundary and the 345 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fonda's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fondalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fonda's 345 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fonda's 345 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fonda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 345 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Fonda-wide figureread your own land →
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