Plessis, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Plessis, 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 Plessis 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 Plessis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Plessis — the short answer
Plessis, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 221 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 221 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 Plessis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plessis's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plessis
Each reading below is measured for Plessis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlessis runs about 199 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
MeasuredPlessis 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 Plessis is in
Plessis sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Plessis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Plessis
Every plant below cleared Plessis's own zone 5a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plessis?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Plessis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Plessis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 85 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Plessis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plessis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ART'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP-SPILL 2204742 AT 39618 HYDE LAKE RDBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- J1027Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- J 836Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- ALEXANDRIA(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- REDWOOD FIRE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FELDER'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- F.K. GAILEY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- BROWN'S CHEVROLET OLDS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- REDWOOD MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- J1451Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- ROBINSON'S SMALL ENGINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plessis'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 Plessis.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Plessis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plessis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plessis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plessis, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Plessis. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Plessis
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 Plessis average
Your land is one point inside Plessis
Everything above resolves to Plessis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 221 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 Plessis Average
Plessis Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Plessis
- ●One soil character for all of Plessis
- ●Frost dates read at Plessis's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plessis's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plessis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plessis, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plessis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plessis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plessis average
How we know this about Plessis
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 Plessis’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 Plessis
When does frost risk typically end in Plessis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plessis typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Plessis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plessis typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plessis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plessis sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 18, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plessis?
The federal record around Plessis shows 109 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Plessis?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plessis's scale — its 5a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plessis'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 Plessis’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Plessis's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 221 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plessis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plessis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 1 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plessis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plessis's boundary and the 221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plessis's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Plessis 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 Plessis's 221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plessis's 221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plessis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Plessis-wide figureread your own land →