Montour Falls, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Montour Falls, 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 Montour Falls 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 Montour Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Montour Falls — the short answer
Montour Falls, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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
- 2K 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 6b is Montour Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Montour Falls's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Montour Falls
Each reading below is measured for Montour Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMontour Falls 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
MeasuredMontour Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Montour Falls is in
Montour Falls sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Montour Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schuyler County.
What Grows in Montour Falls
Every plant below cleared Montour Falls's own zone 6b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Montour Falls?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Montour Falls
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Montour Falls, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Montour Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Montour Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SY 169Nitrate · 500 ft
- MONTOUR MOTORS MODELSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOLLAR FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6915Brownfields · 850 ft
- EXPRESSMART #524Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FRANK'S AUTOMOTIVE SPECIALISTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MONTOUR MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SHEPARD NILES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WELLIVER MCGUIRE INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ELMIRA-WATKINS GLEN TRANSIT CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SCHUYLER HOSPITAL INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SY 424Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Montour Falls'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 Montour Falls.
Total Sites
161
within ~10 miles of Montour Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Montour Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Montour Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Montour Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Montour Falls — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (46 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Montour Falls
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 Montour Falls average
Your land is one point inside Montour Falls
Everything above resolves to Montour Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Montour Falls Average
Montour Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Montour Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Montour Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Montour Falls's scale: Apr 15 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Montour Falls's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Montour Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Montour Falls, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Montour Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Montour Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Montour Falls average
How we know this about Montour Falls
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 Montour Falls’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 Montour Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Montour Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Montour Falls 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 Montour Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Montour Falls 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 Montour Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Montour Falls 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 Montour Falls?
The federal record around Montour Falls shows 161 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Montour Falls?
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 Montour Falls's scale — its 6b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Montour Falls'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 Montour Falls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Montour Falls's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,925 acres it covers and 161 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Montour Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Montour Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Nov 1 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 161 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Montour Falls, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Montour Falls's boundary and the 1,925 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Montour Falls's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Montour Fallslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Montour Falls's 1,925 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schuyler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schuyler 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 Schuyler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Montour Falls's 1,925 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Montour Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,925 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Montour Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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