Gainesville, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gainesville, 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 Gainesville 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 Gainesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gainesville — the short answer
Gainesville, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 546 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- 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
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 546 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 6a is Gainesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gainesville's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gainesville
Each reading below is measured for Gainesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGainesville runs about 179 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
MeasuredGainesville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Gainesville is in
Gainesville sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gainesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wyoming County.
What Grows in Gainesville
Every plant below cleared Gainesville's own zone 6a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gainesville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Gainesville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gainesville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gainesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gainesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- MARQUART BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- GAINESVILLE TOWN OFBrownfields · 350 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1015130Brownfields · 450 ft
- BRAD FISHER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WO 64Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- LETCHWORTH CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LEWIS R. BANNISTER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BROUGHTON FARM OPERATION LLCCAFO · 1.7 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1030130Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- WO 70Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- WO 69Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gainesville'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 Gainesville.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Gainesville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gainesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gainesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gainesville, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Gainesville. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Gainesville
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 Gainesville average
Your land is one point inside Gainesville
Everything above resolves to Gainesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 546 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 Gainesville Average
Gainesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gainesville
- ●One soil character for all of Gainesville
- ●Frost dates read at Gainesville's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gainesville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gainesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gainesville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gainesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gainesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gainesville average
How we know this about Gainesville
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 Gainesville’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 Gainesville
When does frost risk typically end in Gainesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gainesville typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Gainesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gainesville 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 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gainesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gainesville sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 10, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gainesville?
The federal record around Gainesville is a meaningful one — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gainesville?
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 Gainesville's scale — its 6a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gainesville'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 Gainesville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gainesville's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 546 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gainesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gainesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 24 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gainesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gainesville's boundary and the 546 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gainesville's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gainesville 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 Gainesville's 546 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wyoming County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wyoming 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 Wyoming County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gainesville's 546 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gainesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 546 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gainesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkGainesville sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides