Franklinville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Franklinville, 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 Franklinville 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 Franklinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Franklinville — the short answer
Franklinville, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 704 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 704 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 5a is Franklinville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Franklinville's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Franklinville
Each reading below is measured for Franklinville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFranklinville runs about 157 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
MeasuredFranklinville sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Franklinville is in
Franklinville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Franklinville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cattaraugus County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Franklinville
Every plant below cleared Franklinville's own zone 5a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Franklinville?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Franklinville
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Franklinville, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Franklinville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Franklinville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROGERS SHURFINE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- YELLOW GOOSE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SUGAR CREEK STORE #112Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TOWN OF FRANKLINVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FRANKLINVILLE SCHOOL DIST - HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- KWIK FILL M0012/066Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MOSLER COUNTER SYSTEMS DIVToxics Release Inventory · 2200 ft
- FRANKLINVILLE CENTRAL SCHOOL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1073791Brownfields · 2600 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1073792Brownfields · 2600 ft
- CLEAR TRUCKIN LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ONTARIO KNIFE COBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Franklinville'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 Franklinville.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Franklinville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Franklinville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Franklinville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Franklinville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Franklinville — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Franklinville
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 Franklinville average
Your land is one point inside Franklinville
Everything above resolves to Franklinville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 704 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 Franklinville Average
Franklinville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Franklinville
- ●One soil character for all of Franklinville
- ●Frost dates read at Franklinville's scale: May 7 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Franklinville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Franklinville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Franklinville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Franklinville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Franklinville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Franklinville average
How we know this about Franklinville
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 Franklinville’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 Franklinville
When does frost risk typically end in Franklinville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Franklinville typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Franklinville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Franklinville typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Franklinville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Franklinville sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 27, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Franklinville?
The federal record around Franklinville shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Franklinville?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Franklinville's scale — its 5a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Franklinville'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 Franklinville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Franklinville's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 704 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Franklinville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Franklinville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 11 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Franklinville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Franklinville's boundary and the 704 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Franklinville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Franklinvillelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Franklinville's 704 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cattaraugus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Franklinville's 704 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Franklinville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 704 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Franklinville-wide figureread your own land →
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