Lackawanna, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lackawanna, 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 Lackawanna 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 Lackawanna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lackawanna — the short answer
Lackawanna, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 6b is Lackawanna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lackawanna's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lackawanna
Each reading below is measured for Lackawanna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLackawanna runs about 216 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLackawanna sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lackawanna is in
Lackawanna sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lackawanna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Lackawanna
Every plant below cleared Lackawanna's own zone 6b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lackawanna?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Lackawanna
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Lackawanna, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lackawanna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lackawanna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSX INTERMODAL TERMINAL INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- ECSD 6 SEAL STREET PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- FRANKLIN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ECSD 6 LACKAWANNA WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP RIDGE STATION 142 SUBBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CIR ELECTRICAL CONSTRUCTION CORP FORMERLYBrownfields · 2200 ft
- KRYPELS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SPRAYTECH COATINGS INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- RITE AID #1689Brownfields · 2500 ft
- HOLY CROSS CEMETERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- NOCO EXPRESS S-75Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WASHINGTON SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lackawanna'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 Lackawanna.
Total Sites
2,353
within ~10 miles of Lackawanna
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
50 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lackawanna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lackawanna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lackawanna, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lackawanna — Superfund (50 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (162 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lackawanna
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 Lackawanna average
Your land is one point inside Lackawanna
Everything above resolves to Lackawanna as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Lackawanna Average
Lackawanna Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lackawanna
- ●One soil character for all of Lackawanna
- ●Frost dates read at Lackawanna's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lackawanna's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lackawanna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lackawanna, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lackawanna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lackawanna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lackawanna average
How we know this about Lackawanna
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 Lackawanna’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 Lackawanna
When does frost risk typically end in Lackawanna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lackawanna typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Lackawanna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lackawanna typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lackawanna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lackawanna sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 31, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lackawanna?
The federal record around Lackawanna is a meaningful one — 2,353 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,134), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Lackawanna?
From about Oct 15 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 Nov 14 (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 Nov 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lackawanna's scale — its 6b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lackawanna'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 Lackawanna’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lackawanna's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,191 acres it covers and 2,353 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lackawanna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lackawanna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 14 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,353 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lackawanna, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lackawanna's boundary and the 4,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lackawanna's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Lackawannalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lackawanna's 4,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lackawanna's 4,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lackawanna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Lackawanna-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkLackawanna sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides