Houghton, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Houghton, 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 Houghton 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 Houghton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Houghton — the short answer
Houghton, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 166 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~166
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Houghton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Houghton's 166-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Houghton
Each reading below is measured for Houghton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHoughton runs about 166 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
MeasuredHoughton 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 Houghton is in
Houghton sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Houghton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Allegany County.
What Grows in Houghton
Every plant below cleared Houghton's own zone 5b and its 166-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Houghton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Houghton
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Houghton, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Houghton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Houghton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AG 226Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- HOUGHTON COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HOUGHTON MINI MART, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HOUGHTON COLLEGE MAINTENANCE DEPTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- AG 264Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AG 746Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- FLOWER BASKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FILLMORE COLLISIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- BEHEN FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- STRZELEC FARM(HEIFER)CAFO · 2.0 mi
- GILBERT DAIRY FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- NYSDOT CANEADEA SUB HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Houghton'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 Houghton.
Total Sites
111
within ~10 miles of Houghton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
16 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Houghton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Houghton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Houghton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Houghton — CAFO (16 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Houghton
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 Houghton average
Your land is one point inside Houghton
Everything above resolves to Houghton 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 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 Houghton Average
Houghton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Houghton
- ●One soil character for all of Houghton
- ●Frost dates read at Houghton's scale: May 4 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Houghton's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Houghton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Houghton, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Houghton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Houghton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Houghton average
How we know this about Houghton
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 Houghton’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 Houghton
When does frost risk typically end in Houghton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Houghton typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Houghton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Houghton typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 166 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Houghton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Houghton sees about 166 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 3, about 131 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Houghton?
The federal record around Houghton shows 111 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Houghton?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Houghton's scale — its 5b band and its 166-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Houghton'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 Houghton’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Houghton's own scale — its own ~166-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,741 acres it covers and 111 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Houghton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Houghton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 17 and the ~166-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 111 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Houghton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Houghton's boundary and the 1,741 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~166-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Houghton's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Houghtonlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Houghton's 1,741 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Allegany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Allegany 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 Allegany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Houghton's 1,741 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Houghton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,741 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Houghton-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkHoughton sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.