Frankfort, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Frankfort, 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 Frankfort 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 Frankfort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Frankfort — the short answer
Frankfort, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 649 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 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 649 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 Frankfort's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Frankfort's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Frankfort
Each reading below is measured for Frankfort itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFrankfort runs about 194 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
MeasuredFrankfort 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 Frankfort is in
Frankfort sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Frankfort'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 Frankfort
Every plant below cleared Frankfort's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Frankfort?
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 29 — 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 Frankfort
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from Frankfort, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Frankfort
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Frankfort. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRANKFORT SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- RON'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- DULAK CLEANERS & LAUNDRYBrownfields · 650 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS CORP. #427Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DIMARIA RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- PUMILIO BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- NUROD'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FRANKFORT(V) OFFICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- COUNTRY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FRANKFORT(V) DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TURBO MACHINED PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Frankfort'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 Frankfort.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Frankfort
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Frankfort
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Frankfort, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Frankfort — Superfund (18 sites) and CAFO (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Frankfort
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 Frankfort average
Your land is one point inside Frankfort
Everything above resolves to Frankfort as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 649 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 Frankfort Average
Frankfort Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Frankfort
- ●One soil character for all of Frankfort
- ●Frost dates read at Frankfort's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Frankfort's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Frankfort
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Frankfort, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Frankfort averages can't show:
We read public map data around Frankfort — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Frankfort average
How we know this about Frankfort
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 Frankfort’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 Frankfort
When does frost risk typically end in Frankfort?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Frankfort 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 Frankfort?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Frankfort typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Frankfort?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Frankfort sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Frankfort?
The federal record around Frankfort is a meaningful one — 640 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (393), 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 Frankfort?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Frankfort's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Frankfort'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 Frankfort’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Frankfort's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 649 acres it covers and 640 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Frankfort's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Frankfort's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 640 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Frankfort, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Frankfort's boundary and the 649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Frankfort sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Frankfortlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Frankfort's 649 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 Frankfort's 649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Frankfort you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 649 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 Frankfort-wide figureread your own land →
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