Peru, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peru, 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 Peru 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 Peru — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Peru — the short answer
Peru, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- 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 5a is Peru's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peru's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peru
Each reading below is measured for Peru itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeru runs about 181 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
MeasuredPeru sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Peru is in
Peru sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Peru's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Peru
Every plant below cleared Peru's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peru?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Peru
Survey cells within 31 miles of Peru checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 65 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peru
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peru. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PERU CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- STEWART'S SHOPS #257Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PLAZA MEATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PERU FIRE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JACK LIBERTY'S GARAGE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- AGWAY FARM & HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- AGWAY ENERGY PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ST AUGUSTINES CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WILSON FARMS X-PRESS #589Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHECKOUT CONVENIENCE STORE 03Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peru'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 Peru.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peru
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peru
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peru, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Peru. 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 Peru
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 Peru average
Your land is one point inside Peru
Everything above resolves to Peru 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 Peru Average
Peru Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Peru
- ●One soil character for all of Peru
- ●Frost dates read at Peru's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peru's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peru
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peru, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peru averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peru — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peru average
How we know this about Peru
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 Peru’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 Peru
When does frost risk typically end in Peru?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peru typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Peru?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peru typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peru?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peru sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 6, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peru?
The federal record around Peru is a meaningful one — 394 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (227), 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 Peru?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peru's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peru'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 Peru’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peru's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,231 acres it covers and 394 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peru's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peru's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 20 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 394 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peru, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peru's boundary and the 1,231 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Peru's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Peru 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 Peru's 1,231 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peru's 1,231 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peru you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,231 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 Peru-wide figureread your own land →