Otego, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Otego, 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 Otego 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 Otego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Otego — the short answer
Otego, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 742 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 742 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 Otego's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otego's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Otego
Each reading below is measured for Otego itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOtego runs about 159 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
MeasuredOtego 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 Otego is in
Otego sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Otego's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otsego County.
What Grows in Otego
Every plant below cleared Otego's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Otego?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Otego
Spotted lanternfly documented 16 miles from Otego, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Otego
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Otego. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FIRST CHRISTIAN CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BILLY'S SPEED & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 500 ft
- OTEGO ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STEVENS EXCAVATION, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OG 311Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- NYSDOT REG9 BINS 1094181 & 1094182Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1094020Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- OTEGO BIG MUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BETTIOL REAL ESTATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUICKWAY # 73Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NYSEG NEW YORK STATE ELECTRIC AND GAS - OTEGO SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otego'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 Otego.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Otego
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Otego
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Otego
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 Otego average
Your land is one point inside Otego
Everything above resolves to Otego as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 742 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 Otego Average
Otego Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Otego
- ●One soil character for all of Otego
- ●Frost dates read at Otego's scale: May 9 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otego's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Otego
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otego, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otego averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otego — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otego average
How we know this about Otego
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 Otego’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 Otego
When does frost risk typically end in Otego?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otego typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Otego?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Otego typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Otego?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otego sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Oct 1, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otego?
The federal record around Otego is a meaningful one — 240 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), 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 Otego?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Otego's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otego'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 Otego’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Otego's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 742 acres it covers and 240 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otego's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otego's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 15 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 240 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Otego, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Otego's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Otego's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Otegolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Otego's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otsego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otsego 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 Otsego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Otego's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Otego you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 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 Otego-wide figureread your own land →
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