Fort Plain, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Fort Plain, 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 Fort Plain 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 Fort Plain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Plain — the short answer
Fort Plain, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 861 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- 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
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 861 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 Fort Plain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Plain's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Plain
Each reading below is measured for Fort Plain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Plain runs about 185 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
MeasuredFort Plain 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 Fort Plain is in
Fort Plain sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Plain's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Fort Plain
Every plant below cleared Fort Plain's own zone 5b and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Plain?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Fort Plain
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Fort Plain, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fort Plain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Plain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JIMS SUNOCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- THE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VILLAGE OF FORT PLAIN - GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BLUEOX NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #307Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- EAGLE OIL CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORT PLAIN CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- FORT PLAIN FIBERGLASS POOLSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- COMPOSITE TECHNOLOGY & INFRASTRUCTURE LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- BEECH-NUT NUTRITION CORP. FT.PUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GETTY STATION NO. 58714Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORT PLAIN FREE LIBRARYBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Plain'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 Fort Plain.
Total Sites
234
within ~10 miles of Fort Plain
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Plain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Plain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Plain, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort Plain — CAFO (10 sites) and Nitrate (90 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 Fort Plain
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 Fort Plain average
Your land is one point inside Fort Plain
Everything above resolves to Fort Plain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 861 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 Fort Plain Average
Fort Plain Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Fort Plain
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Plain
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Plain's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Plain's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Plain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Plain, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Plain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Plain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Plain average
How we know this about Fort Plain
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 Fort Plain’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 Fort Plain
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Plain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Plain typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Fort Plain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Plain 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Plain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Plain sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 9, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Plain?
The federal record around Fort Plain is a meaningful one — 234 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Plain?
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 Fort Plain's scale — its 5b band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Plain'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 Fort Plain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Fort Plain's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 861 acres it covers and 234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Plain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Plain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 23 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Plain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Plain's boundary and the 861 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Plain's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Fort Plainlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Plain's 861 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 Fort Plain's 861 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Plain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 861 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Fort Plain-wide figureread your own land →
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