Slaterville Springs, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Slaterville Springs, 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 Slaterville Springs 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 Slaterville Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Slaterville Springs — the short answer
Slaterville Springs, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 168 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 168 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 5b is Slaterville Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Slaterville Springs's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Slaterville Springs
Each reading below is measured for Slaterville Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSlaterville Springs runs about 184 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
MeasuredSlaterville Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Slaterville Springs is in
Slaterville Springs sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Slaterville Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tompkins County.
What Grows in Slaterville Springs
Every plant below cleared Slaterville Springs's own zone 5b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Slaterville Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Slaterville Springs
Spotted lanternfly documented 7 miles from Slaterville Springs, first recorded 2020. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Slaterville Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Slaterville Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CRISPELL AUTOMOTIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TM 986Nitrate · 1800 ft
- MIDNIGHT SUN MARKET, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TM1763Nitrate · 1900 ft
- DANDY MINI MART #33Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1094700Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- TM2023Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- TOWN OF CAROLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TM3864, NYNitrate · 1.3 mi
- TM 994Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- TM1967Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- CAROLINE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Slaterville Springs'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 Slaterville Springs.
Total Sites
385
within ~10 miles of Slaterville Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Slaterville Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Slaterville Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Slaterville Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Slaterville Springs — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (108 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Slaterville Springs
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 Slaterville Springs average
Your land is one point inside Slaterville Springs
Everything above resolves to Slaterville Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 168 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 Slaterville Springs Average
Slaterville Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Slaterville Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Slaterville Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Slaterville Springs's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Slaterville Springs's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Slaterville Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Slaterville Springs, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Slaterville Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Slaterville Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Slaterville Springs average
How we know this about Slaterville Springs
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 Slaterville Springs’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 Slaterville Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Slaterville Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Slaterville Springs typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Slaterville Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Slaterville Springs 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 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Slaterville Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Slaterville Springs sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Slaterville Springs?
The federal record around Slaterville Springs is a meaningful one — 385 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Slaterville Springs?
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 Slaterville Springs's scale — its 5b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Slaterville Springs'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 Slaterville Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Slaterville Springs's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 168 acres it covers and 385 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Slaterville Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Slaterville Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 385 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Slaterville Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Slaterville Springs's boundary and the 168 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Slaterville Springs's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Slaterville Springslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Slaterville Springs's 168 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tompkins County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tompkins 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 Tompkins County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Slaterville Springs's 168 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Slaterville Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 168 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 Slaterville Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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