Plattsburgh, 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 Plattsburgh, 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 Plattsburgh 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 Plattsburgh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plattsburgh — the short answer
Plattsburgh, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Plattsburgh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plattsburgh's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plattsburgh
Each reading below is measured for Plattsburgh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlattsburgh runs about 186 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
MeasuredPlattsburgh 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 Plattsburgh is in
Plattsburgh sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plattsburgh's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Plattsburgh
Every plant below cleared Plattsburgh's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plattsburgh?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Plattsburgh
Survey cells within 31 miles of Plattsburgh checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 74 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Plattsburgh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plattsburgh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAC 60803Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SMALL CAR SER.Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PLATTCO CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PLATTCO CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- VERIZON PLATTSBURGHBrownfields · 950 ft
- CITY OF PLATTSBURGH POLICE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PLATTCO CORPORATIONBrownfields · 950 ft
- ROLAND & LEES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PLATTSBURGH SUITES LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14201Brownfields · 1200 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #260Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ST. JOHN'S ACADEMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plattsburgh'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 Plattsburgh.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plattsburgh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plattsburgh
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plattsburgh, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Plattsburgh. 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 Plattsburgh
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 Plattsburgh average
Your land is one point inside Plattsburgh
Everything above resolves to Plattsburgh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Plattsburgh Average
Plattsburgh Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Plattsburgh
- ●One soil character for all of Plattsburgh
- ●Frost dates read at Plattsburgh's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plattsburgh's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plattsburgh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plattsburgh, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plattsburgh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plattsburgh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plattsburgh average
How we know this about Plattsburgh
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Plattsburgh’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Plattsburgh
When does frost risk typically end in Plattsburgh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plattsburgh typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Plattsburgh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plattsburgh typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plattsburgh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plattsburgh sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 10, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plattsburgh?
The federal record around Plattsburgh is a meaningful one — 427 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (231), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Plattsburgh?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plattsburgh's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plattsburgh'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 Plattsburgh’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Plattsburgh's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,436 acres it covers and 427 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plattsburgh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plattsburgh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 24 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 427 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plattsburgh, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plattsburgh's boundary and the 3,436 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plattsburgh's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Plattsburgh 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 Plattsburgh's 3,436 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 Plattsburgh's 3,436 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plattsburgh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,436 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Plattsburgh-wide figureread your own land →