Lacona, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lacona, 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 Lacona 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 Lacona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lacona — the short answer
Lacona, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 712 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 712 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 Lacona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lacona's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lacona
Each reading below is measured for Lacona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLacona runs about 189 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
MeasuredLacona 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 Lacona is in
Lacona sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lacona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oswego County.
What Grows in Lacona
Every plant below cleared Lacona's own zone 5b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lacona?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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 Lacona
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lacona checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lacona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lacona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OSWEGO COUNTY HWY DEPT-BIN 3366930 MAPLE AVE BRIDGE OVER LITTLE SANDY CREEKBrownfields · 550 ft
- LACONA MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TOWN OF SANDY CREEK HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DAVE'S ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BLOUNT LUMBER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SANDY CREEK CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NYSDOT BRIDGE BIN 1031960Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NYSDOT - HARWOOD DR.-CR 15 OVER I-81 BIN 1031940Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #10640Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- GCR INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SANDY CREEK FOOD MARKET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lacona'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 Lacona.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Lacona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lacona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lacona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lacona, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Lacona. 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 Lacona
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 Lacona average
Your land is one point inside Lacona
Everything above resolves to Lacona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 712 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 Lacona Average
Lacona Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lacona
- ●One soil character for all of Lacona
- ●Frost dates read at Lacona's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lacona's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lacona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lacona, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lacona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lacona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lacona average
How we know this about Lacona
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 Lacona’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 Lacona
When does frost risk typically end in Lacona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lacona typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Lacona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lacona typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lacona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lacona sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 14, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lacona?
The federal record around Lacona shows 152 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lacona?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lacona's scale — its 5b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lacona'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 Lacona’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lacona's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 712 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lacona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lacona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 28 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lacona, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lacona's boundary and the 712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lacona's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lacona 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 Lacona's 712 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oswego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oswego 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 Oswego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lacona's 712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lacona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 712 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Lacona-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkLacona sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides