Ravena, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ravena, 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 Ravena 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 Ravena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ravena — the short answer
Ravena, New York: USDA zone 6a, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 940 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 940 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 6a is Ravena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ravena's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ravena
Each reading below is measured for Ravena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRavena runs about 200 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRavena sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Ravena is in
Ravena sits in the Northeastern Coastal Zone — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ravena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Albany County.
What Grows in Ravena
Every plant below cleared Ravena's own zone 6a and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ravena?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Ravena
Spotted lanternfly documented 4 miles from Ravena, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ravena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ravena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J. HALL, LTD.Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- APARTMENT BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GUILDERLAND CTR AUTO SERVICES, INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PERSICO OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VILLAGE OF RAVENA OFFICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PERSICO SERVICE STATION, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MARSHALLS AUTO EXCHANGE INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- GRACE METHODIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- STEWARTS SHOPS #144Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PETER B. COEYMANS SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CUMBERLAND FARMS #3288Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5037Brownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ravena'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 Ravena.
Total Sites
413
within ~10 miles of Ravena
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ravena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ravena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ravena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ravena — CAFO (12 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ravena
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 Ravena average
Your land is one point inside Ravena
Everything above resolves to Ravena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 940 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 Ravena Average
Ravena Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ravena
- ●One soil character for all of Ravena
- ●Frost dates read at Ravena's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ravena's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ravena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ravena, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ravena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ravena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ravena average
How we know this about Ravena
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 Ravena’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 Ravena
When does frost risk typically end in Ravena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ravena typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Ravena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ravena typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ravena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ravena sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 15, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ravena?
The federal record around Ravena is a meaningful one — 413 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (194), 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 Ravena?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ravena's scale — its 6a band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ravena'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 Ravena’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ravena's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 940 acres it covers and 413 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ravena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ravena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 29 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 413 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ravena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ravena's boundary and the 940 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ravena's own centroid, the Northeastern Coastal ZoneUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Ravenalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ravena's 940 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Albany County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Albany 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 Albany County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ravena's 940 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ravena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 940 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 Ravena-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkRavena sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides