Lorraine, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lorraine, 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 Lorraine 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 Lorraine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lorraine — the short answer
Lorraine, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 314 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 314 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 Lorraine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lorraine's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lorraine
Each reading below is measured for Lorraine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLorraine runs about 174 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
MeasuredLorraine 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 Lorraine is in
Lorraine sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Lorraine's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lorraine
Every plant below cleared Lorraine's own zone 5a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lorraine?
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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Lorraine
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lorraine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 49 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lorraine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lorraine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOORE'S COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TUG EDGE DAIRYCAFO · 3.4 mi
- J 202Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- J1653Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- J 216Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- GLIDER SUNRISE #28Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- J1416Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- JEFFERSON CO HWY DEPT BIN 3338670Brownfields · 4.4 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1008610Brownfields · 4.5 mi
- NYSDOT BRIDGE BIN 1008620Brownfields · 4.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 2016Brownfields · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lorraine'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 Lorraine.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Lorraine
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lorraine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lorraine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lorraine, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Lorraine. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Lorraine
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 Lorraine average
Your land is one point inside Lorraine
Everything above resolves to Lorraine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 314 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 Lorraine Average
Lorraine Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Lorraine
- ●One soil character for all of Lorraine
- ●Frost dates read at Lorraine's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lorraine's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lorraine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lorraine, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lorraine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lorraine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lorraine average
How we know this about Lorraine
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 Lorraine’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 Lorraine
When does frost risk typically end in Lorraine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lorraine typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lorraine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lorraine typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lorraine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lorraine sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 2, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lorraine?
The federal record around Lorraine shows 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lorraine?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lorraine's scale — its 5a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lorraine'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 Lorraine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lorraine's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 314 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lorraine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lorraine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 16 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lorraine, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lorraine's boundary and the 314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lorraine sits in the Northeastern Highlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lorraine 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 Lorraine's 314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lorraine's 314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lorraine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 314 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Lorraine-wide figureread your own land →