McGraw, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in McGraw, 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 McGraw 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 McGraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McGraw — the short answer
McGraw, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 632 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 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 632 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 McGraw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McGraw's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McGraw
Each reading below is measured for McGraw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcGraw runs about 184 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
MeasuredMcGraw 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 McGraw is in
McGraw sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McGraw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cortland County.
What Grows in McGraw
Every plant below cleared McGraw's own zone 5b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McGraw?
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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around McGraw
Spotted lanternfly documented 22 miles from McGraw, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McGraw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McGraw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCGRAW CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 950 ft
- MCGRAW BOX COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- C 266Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- C 295Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1031351Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1031352Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- POLKVILLE CRUSHED STONE/SUIT-KOTE TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- MOHAWK VALLEY OIL CORTLAND TERMINALToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- C1027Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- K&B PLASTIC INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- C 584Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- MICROBAC CORTLAND NYBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McGraw'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 McGraw.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McGraw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McGraw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McGraw, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McGraw — CAFO (21 sites) and Nitrate (118 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in McGraw
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 McGraw average
Your land is one point inside McGraw
Everything above resolves to McGraw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 632 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 McGraw Average
McGraw Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across McGraw
- ●One soil character for all of McGraw
- ●Frost dates read at McGraw's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McGraw's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McGraw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McGraw, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McGraw averages can't show:
We read public map data around McGraw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McGraw average
How we know this about McGraw
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 McGraw’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 McGraw
When does frost risk typically end in McGraw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McGraw 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 McGraw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McGraw typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McGraw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McGraw sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 9, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McGraw?
The federal record around McGraw is a meaningful one — 271 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (118), 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 McGraw?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McGraw's scale — its 5b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McGraw'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 McGraw’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at McGraw's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 632 acres it covers and 271 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McGraw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- McGraw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 23 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 271 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McGraw, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McGraw's boundary and the 632 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McGraw's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of McGrawlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McGraw's 632 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cortland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cortland 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 Cortland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McGraw's 632 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McGraw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 632 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 McGraw-wide figureread your own land →
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