Port Henry, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Port Henry, 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 Port Henry 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 Port Henry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Henry — the short answer
Port Henry, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 890 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
- 890 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 Port Henry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Henry's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Henry
Each reading below is measured for Port Henry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPort Henry 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
MeasuredPort Henry 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 Port Henry is in
Port Henry sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port Henry's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Essex County is mostly Northeastern Highlands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Port Henry
Every plant below cleared Port Henry'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 Port Henry?
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 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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Port Henry
Survey cells within 31 miles of Port Henry checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 43 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Port Henry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Henry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VACANT LANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PORT HENRY MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- VILLAGE OF PORT HENRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GENIERS MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- STEWART'S SHOP #103Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MOUNTAIN LAKE SERVICE/DAY HABILITATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1006860Brownfields · 1200 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #10892Brownfields · 2500 ft
- GRIFFITH OIL CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- GRIFFITH ENERGY - PORT HENRYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- PORT HENRY SERVICE CTR.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MORIAH CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Henry'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 Port Henry.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Port Henry
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Henry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Henry
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 Port Henry
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 Port Henry average
Your land is one point inside Port Henry
Everything above resolves to Port Henry as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 890 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 Port Henry Average
Port Henry Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Port Henry
- ●One soil character for all of Port Henry
- ●Frost dates read at Port Henry's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Henry's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Henry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Henry, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Henry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Henry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Henry average
How we know this about Port Henry
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 Port Henry’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 Port Henry
When does frost risk typically end in Port Henry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Henry 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 Port Henry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Henry 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 Port Henry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Henry 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 Port Henry?
The federal record around Port Henry shows 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Port Henry?
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 Port Henry's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Henry'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 Port Henry’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Port Henry's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 890 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Henry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Port Henry's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 20 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Henry, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Henry's boundary and the 890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Port Henry sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Port Henry 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 Port Henry's 890 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Essex County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Essex 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 Essex County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Henry's 890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Henry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 890 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 Port Henry-wide figureread your own land →