Orange Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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 Orange Lake, 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 Orange Lake 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 Orange Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orange Lake — the short answer
Orange Lake, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Orange Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orange Lake's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orange Lake
Each reading below is measured for Orange Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrange Lake runs about 206 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
MeasuredOrange Lake 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 Orange Lake is in
Orange Lake sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Orange Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Orange County.
What Grows in Orange Lake
Every plant below cleared Orange Lake's own zone 6b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orange Lake?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Orange Lake
Spotted lanternfly documented 1 miles from Orange Lake, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Orange Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orange Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AREA OIL SUPPLY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS #278Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ORANGE AUTO ELECTRICBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SUNOCO # 0011-8307Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- F & T DARRIGOBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- NYS THRUWAY AUTHORITY BRIDGE BIN 5514380Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SAPPHIRE NURSING AT MEADOW HILLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ELANT AT NEWBURGHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NYS THRUWAY BRIDGE MP 52.57Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- MOBIL R/S #12790Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EAST COLDENHAM ELEMENTARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VISCONTI BUS SERVICE, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orange Lake'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 Orange Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orange Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orange Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orange Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orange Lake — Superfund (17 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Orange Lake
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 Orange Lake average
Your land is one point inside Orange Lake
Everything above resolves to Orange Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Orange Lake Average
Orange Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Orange Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Orange Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Orange Lake's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orange Lake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orange Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orange Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orange Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orange Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orange Lake average
How we know this about Orange Lake
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 Orange Lake’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 Orange Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Orange Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orange Lake typically lands around Apr 7, 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 Apr 28.
When is the first frost in Orange Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orange Lake typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orange Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orange Lake sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 16, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orange Lake?
The federal record around Orange Lake runs heavier than most — 986 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (606), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Orange Lake?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orange Lake's scale — its 6b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orange Lake'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 Orange Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Orange Lake's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,589 acres it covers and 986 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orange Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orange Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 30 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 986 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orange Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orange Lake's boundary and the 5,589 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orange Lake's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Orange Lakelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orange Lake's 5,589 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Orange County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Orange 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 Orange County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orange Lake's 5,589 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orange Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,589 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Orange Lake-wide figureread your own land →