Manlius, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Manlius, 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 Manlius 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 Manlius — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Manlius — the short answer
Manlius, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Manlius's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Manlius's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Manlius
Each reading below is measured for Manlius itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredManlius runs about 200 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
MeasuredManlius sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Manlius is in
Manlius sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Manlius's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onondaga County.
What Grows in Manlius
Every plant below cleared Manlius's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Manlius?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Manlius
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Manlius, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Manlius
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Manlius. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMMUNITY COVENANT CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #40141Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PRODUCTION PRODUCTS COToxics Release Inventory · 900 ft
- TOWN OF MANLIUS POLICE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- THERMOLD CORPBrownfields · 1100 ft
- VILL. OF MANLIUS-VILL. CENTREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EXPRESS MART # 381Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #7617Brownfields · 1200 ft
- OD 210Nitrate · 1200 ft
- HOLLOWICK INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- THE DRYCLEANERS OF MANLIUSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- VILLAGE OF MANLIUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Manlius'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 Manlius.
Total Sites
1,232
within ~10 miles of Manlius
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Manlius
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Manlius
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Manlius
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 Manlius average
Your land is one point inside Manlius
Everything above resolves to Manlius as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Manlius Average
Manlius Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Manlius
- ●One soil character for all of Manlius
- ●Frost dates read at Manlius's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Manlius's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Manlius
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Manlius, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Manlius averages can't show:
We read public map data around Manlius — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Manlius average
How we know this about Manlius
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 Manlius’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 Manlius
When does frost risk typically end in Manlius?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Manlius typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Manlius?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Manlius typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Manlius?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Manlius sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 18, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Manlius?
The federal record around Manlius is a meaningful one — 1,232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (592), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Manlius?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Manlius's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Manlius'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 Manlius’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Manlius's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,165 acres it covers and 1,232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Manlius's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Manlius's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Manlius, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Manlius's boundary and the 1,165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Manlius's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Manliuslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Manlius's 1,165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Onondaga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Onondaga 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 Onondaga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Manlius's 1,165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Manlius you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Manlius-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkManlius sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides