Massena, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Massena, 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 Massena 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 Massena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Massena — the short answer
Massena, New York: USDA zone 4b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 4b is Massena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Massena's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Massena
Each reading below is measured for Massena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMassena runs about 180 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
MeasuredMassena sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Massena is in
Massena sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Massena's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Lawrence County.
What Grows in Massena
Every plant below cleared Massena's own zone 4b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Massena?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 19 — 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 Massena
Survey cells within 31 miles of Massena checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Massena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Massena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MASSENA SAVINGS & LOAN ASSOC.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- QUALITY INN - MASSENAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JAC TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LAUREL TERRACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- EAST ORVIS STREET MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SEAWAY INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE - SOUTH CHANNELBrownfields · 650 ft
- MASSENA MASONIC TEMPLE ASSOCIATION,INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- TOWN OF MASSENAUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #40145Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- W L SMITHS HARDWARE CORPBrownfields · 800 ft
- FORMER SCHWARTZ FURNITURE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Massena'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 Massena.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Massena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Massena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Massena, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Massena. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Massena
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 Massena average
Your land is one point inside Massena
Everything above resolves to Massena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Massena Average
Massena Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Massena
- ●One soil character for all of Massena
- ●Frost dates read at Massena's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Massena's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Massena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Massena, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Massena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Massena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Massena average
How we know this about Massena
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 Massena’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 Massena
When does frost risk typically end in Massena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Massena 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 Massena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Massena typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Massena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Massena sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 5, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Massena?
The federal record around Massena is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Massena?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Massena's scale — its 4b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Massena'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 Massena’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Massena's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,899 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Massena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Massena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 19 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Massena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Massena's boundary and the 2,899 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Massena's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Massena 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 Massena's 2,899 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Lawrence County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Lawrence 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 St. Lawrence County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Massena's 2,899 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Massena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,899 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Massena-wide figureread your own land →