Moravia, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Moravia, 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 Moravia 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 Moravia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moravia — the short answer
Moravia, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- 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 Moravia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moravia's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moravia
Each reading below is measured for Moravia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoravia runs about 192 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
MeasuredMoravia 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 Moravia is in
Moravia sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Moravia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cayuga County is mostly Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Moravia
Every plant below cleared Moravia's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moravia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Moravia
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Moravia, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moravia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moravia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORE & MAIN - CENTRAL STBrownfields · 150 ft
- KIRBOURNE AGENGYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #13235Brownfields · 450 ft
- KINNEY DRUGS STORE #73Brownfields · 450 ft
- GRANNY'S LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- KWIK FILL MO351 / MO351Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- U.S. POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- HOWD NURSING HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CORE & MAINBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MORAVIA VETERINARY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1100 ft
- NYSDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALNYE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moravia'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 Moravia.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Moravia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moravia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moravia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moravia, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Moravia. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Moravia
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 Moravia average
Your land is one point inside Moravia
Everything above resolves to Moravia 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 Moravia Average
Moravia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Moravia
- ●One soil character for all of Moravia
- ●Frost dates read at Moravia's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moravia's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moravia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moravia, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moravia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moravia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moravia average
How we know this about Moravia
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 Moravia’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 Moravia
When does frost risk typically end in Moravia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moravia typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Moravia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moravia typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moravia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moravia sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 15, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moravia?
The federal record around Moravia shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Brownfields 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 Moravia?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moravia's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moravia'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 Moravia’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moravia's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,090 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moravia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moravia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 29 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moravia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moravia's boundary and the 1,090 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Moravia sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Moravialydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moravia's 1,090 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cayuga County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cayuga 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 Cayuga County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moravia's 1,090 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moravia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,090 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 Moravia-wide figureread your own land →
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