Glens Falls, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Glens Falls, 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 Glens Falls 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 Glens Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glens Falls — the short answer
Glens Falls, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Glens Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glens Falls's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glens Falls
Each reading below is measured for Glens Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlens Falls runs about 178 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
MeasuredGlens Falls 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 Glens Falls is in
Glens Falls sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glens Falls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Warren County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Glens Falls
Every plant below cleared Glens Falls's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glens Falls?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Glens Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Glens Falls, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Glens Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glens Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3163Brownfields · 150 ft
- CAE SCREENPLATES INCToxics Release Inventory · 150 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE - GLENS FALLS NYGLEBrownfields · 150 ft
- DUKE CONCRETE PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 150 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP SPIER FALLS SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 150 ft
- SEARS ROEBUCK & COBrownfields · 150 ft
- 21 BAY STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- QUEENSBURY HOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- AROXY CLEANERSBrownfields · 700 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP MH31 & MH35 AT 144 GLEN STBrownfields · 750 ft
- ADIRONDACK SCENICBrownfields · 750 ft
- 51-57 SOUTH ST.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glens Falls'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 Glens Falls.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glens Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glens Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glens Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glens Falls — CAFO (13 sites) and PFAS (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Glens Falls
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 Glens Falls average
Your land is one point inside Glens Falls
Everything above resolves to Glens Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Glens Falls Average
Glens Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Glens Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Glens Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Glens Falls's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glens Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glens Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glens Falls, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glens Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glens Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glens Falls average
How we know this about Glens Falls
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Glens Falls’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Glens Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Glens Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glens Falls typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Glens Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glens Falls typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glens Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glens Falls sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 4, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glens Falls?
The federal record around Glens Falls is a meaningful one — 573 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (292), 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 Glens Falls?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glens Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glens Falls'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 Glens Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Glens Falls's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,465 acres it covers and 573 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glens Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glens Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 18 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 573 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glens Falls, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glens Falls's boundary and the 2,465 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Glens Falls sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Glens Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glens Falls's 2,465 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glens Falls's 2,465 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glens Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,465 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 Glens Falls-wide figureread your own land →