Oriskany, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Oriskany, 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 Oriskany 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 Oriskany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oriskany — the short answer
Oriskany, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 507 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 507 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 Oriskany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oriskany's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oriskany
Each reading below is measured for Oriskany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOriskany runs about 194 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
MeasuredOriskany 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 Oriskany is in
Oriskany sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Oriskany's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oneida County.
What Grows in Oriskany
Every plant below cleared Oriskany's own zone 5b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Oriskany?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Oriskany
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oriskany checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 40 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oriskany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oriskany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORISKANY(V) DPWUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WATERBURY FELT COMPANY INCToxics Release Inventory · 350 ft
- WATERBURY FELT COMPANY, PREMISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- ROMEO ECONOMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CLEMENTE FANE ORISKANY CONCRETEToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- CALLANAN INDUSTRIES INC ORISKANY FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 850 ft
- STEEL TREATERS INCBrownfields · 950 ft
- STEEL TREATERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 950 ft
- ORISKANY CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GOLD MEDAL PACKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NYS CANAL CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ORISKANY C.S. BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oriskany'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 Oriskany.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oriskany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oriskany
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oriskany, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Oriskany. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Oriskany
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 Oriskany average
Your land is one point inside Oriskany
Everything above resolves to Oriskany as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 507 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 Oriskany Average
Oriskany Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Oriskany
- ●One soil character for all of Oriskany
- ●Frost dates read at Oriskany's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oriskany's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oriskany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oriskany, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oriskany averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oriskany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oriskany average
How we know this about Oriskany
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 Oriskany’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 Oriskany
When does frost risk typically end in Oriskany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oriskany typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Oriskany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oriskany 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 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oriskany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oriskany sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oriskany?
The federal record around Oriskany is a meaningful one — 1,253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (760), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Oriskany?
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 Oriskany's scale — its 5b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oriskany'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 Oriskany’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Oriskany's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 507 acres it covers and 1,253 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oriskany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Oriskany's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oriskany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oriskany's boundary and the 507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Oriskany's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Oriskany checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oriskany's 507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oriskany's 507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oriskany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 507 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Oriskany-wide figureread your own land →
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