Minoa, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Minoa, 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 Minoa 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 Minoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Minoa — the short answer
Minoa, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 854 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 854 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 Minoa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minoa's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minoa
Each reading below is measured for Minoa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinoa runs about 207 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
MeasuredMinoa 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 Minoa is in
Minoa sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Minoa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Onondaga County.
What Grows in Minoa
Every plant below cleared Minoa's own zone 6a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minoa?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Minoa
Spotted lanternfly documented 6 miles from Minoa, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Minoa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minoa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO LPBrownfields · 500 ft
- DECAROLIS TRUCK RENTAL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SCOTTY'S AUTOMOTIVE, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MINOA AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MINOA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FREMONT CHRISTIAN ACADEMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MINOA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TRANSPORTATION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VILLAGE OF MINOA DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ONONDAGA COUNTY DOTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MARTIN F CESARIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TOWN OF MANLIUS HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minoa'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 Minoa.
Total Sites
1,643
within ~10 miles of Minoa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minoa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minoa
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 Minoa
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 Minoa average
Your land is one point inside Minoa
Everything above resolves to Minoa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 854 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 Minoa Average
Minoa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Minoa
- ●One soil character for all of Minoa
- ●Frost dates read at Minoa's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minoa's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minoa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minoa, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minoa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minoa average
How we know this about Minoa
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 Minoa’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 Minoa
When does frost risk typically end in Minoa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minoa typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Minoa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minoa typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minoa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minoa sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 22, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minoa?
The federal record around Minoa is a meaningful one — 1,643 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (808), the nearest Brownfields 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 Minoa?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Minoa's scale — its 6a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minoa'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 Minoa’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Minoa's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 854 acres it covers and 1,643 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minoa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minoa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 5 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,643 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minoa, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minoa's boundary and the 854 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minoa's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Minoalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minoa's 854 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 Minoa's 854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minoa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 854 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Minoa-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkMinoa sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides