Tupper Lake, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Tupper Lake, 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 Tupper Lake 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 Tupper Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tupper Lake — the short answer
Tupper Lake, New York: USDA zone 4a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- 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 4a is Tupper Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tupper Lake's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tupper Lake
Each reading below is measured for Tupper Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTupper Lake runs about 151 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
MeasuredTupper Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Tupper Lake is in
Tupper Lake sits in the Northeastern Highlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Tupper Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Tupper Lake
Every plant below cleared Tupper Lake's own zone 4a and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tupper Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — 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 Tupper Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tupper Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 33 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tupper Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tupper Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOP GAS STATION #55Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR STORE 4423Brownfields · 850 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #6014Brownfields · 900 ft
- SUBS PLUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DBA RITE AID #01156Brownfields · 1400 ft
- TUPPER LAKE ELECTRICAL SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CENTER FOR INTENSIVE TREATMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VILLAGE OF TUPPER LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TUPPER LAKE CENTRAL SCHOOL - BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 61 LAKE STUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LUKE'S MOBIL INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 7715390Brownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tupper Lake'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 Tupper Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tupper Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tupper Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Tupper Lake
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 Tupper Lake average
Your land is one point inside Tupper Lake
Everything above resolves to Tupper Lake 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 Tupper Lake Average
Tupper Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Tupper Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Tupper Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Tupper Lake's scale: May 7 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tupper Lake's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tupper Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tupper Lake, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tupper Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tupper Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tupper Lake average
How we know this about Tupper Lake
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 Tupper Lake’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 Tupper Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Tupper Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tupper Lake typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Tupper Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tupper Lake typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tupper Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tupper Lake sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 21, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tupper Lake?
The federal record around Tupper Lake shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tupper Lake?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tupper Lake's scale — its 4a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tupper Lake'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 Tupper Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Tupper Lake's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,338 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tupper Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tupper Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 5 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tupper Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tupper Lake's boundary and the 1,338 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tupper Lake's own centroid, the Northeastern HighlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tupper Lake 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 Tupper Lake's 1,338 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tupper Lake's 1,338 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tupper Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,338 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tupper Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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