Redwood, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Redwood, 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 Redwood 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 Redwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Redwood — the short answer
Redwood, New York: USDA zone 5a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 Redwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Redwood's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Redwood
Each reading below is measured for Redwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRedwood runs about 197 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
MeasuredRedwood 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 Redwood is in
Redwood sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Redwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Redwood
Every plant below cleared Redwood's own zone 5a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Redwood?
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 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 Oct 30 — 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 Redwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Redwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 86 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Redwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Redwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALEXANDRIA(T) HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- F.K. GAILEY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- REDWOOD MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BROWN'S CHEVROLET OLDS, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FELDER'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REDWOOD FIRE DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ROBINSON'S SMALL ENGINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Redwood Lead OccurrenceMining · 1.3 mi
- J 836Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- ART'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1023800Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- NIAGARA MOHAWK POWER CORP-SPILL 2204742 AT 39618 HYDE LAKE RDBrownfields · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Redwood'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 Redwood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Redwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Redwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Redwood, Mining runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Redwood. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Redwood
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 Redwood average
Your land is one point inside Redwood
Everything above resolves to Redwood 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 Redwood Average
Redwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Redwood
- ●One soil character for all of Redwood
- ●Frost dates read at Redwood's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Redwood's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Redwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Redwood, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Redwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Redwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Redwood average
How we know this about Redwood
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 Redwood’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 Redwood
When does frost risk typically end in Redwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Redwood 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 Redwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Redwood typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Redwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Redwood sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 16, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Redwood?
The federal record around Redwood runs heavier than most — 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Redwood?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Redwood's scale — its 5a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Redwood'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 Redwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Redwood's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,259 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Redwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Redwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 30 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Redwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Redwood's boundary and the 1,259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Redwood's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Redwood 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 Redwood's 1,259 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 Redwood's 1,259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Redwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,259 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Redwood-wide figureread your own land →