Unadilla, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Unadilla, 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 Unadilla 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 Unadilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Unadilla — the short answer
Unadilla, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 664 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 664 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 Unadilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Unadilla's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Unadilla
Each reading below is measured for Unadilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnadilla runs about 160 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
MeasuredUnadilla 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 Unadilla is in
Unadilla sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Unadilla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otsego County.
What Grows in Unadilla
Every plant below cleared Unadilla's own zone 5b and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Unadilla?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — 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 Unadilla
Spotted lanternfly documented 24 miles from Unadilla, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Unadilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Unadilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VAN COTT DEVELOPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- VANS CITGO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- QUICKWAY #38Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FURGASON'S MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KWIK FILL MO347/347Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- D R CHAMBERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- YORK MODERN CORP.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TOWN OF UNADILLA HIGHWAY DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OG 6Nitrate · 2300 ft
- NYSDOT BIN 1094161Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- NYSDOT REG9 BIN 1094162Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- OG 400Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Unadilla'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 Unadilla.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Unadilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Unadilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Unadilla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Unadilla — CAFO (4 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Unadilla
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 Unadilla average
Your land is one point inside Unadilla
Everything above resolves to Unadilla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 664 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 Unadilla Average
Unadilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Unadilla
- ●One soil character for all of Unadilla
- ●Frost dates read at Unadilla's scale: May 7 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Unadilla's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Unadilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Unadilla, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Unadilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Unadilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Unadilla average
How we know this about Unadilla
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 Unadilla’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 Unadilla
When does frost risk typically end in Unadilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Unadilla 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 Unadilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Unadilla typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Unadilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Unadilla sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 30, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Unadilla?
The federal record around Unadilla runs heavier than most — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Unadilla?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Unadilla's scale — its 5b band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Unadilla'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 Unadilla’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Unadilla's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 664 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Unadilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Unadilla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 14 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Unadilla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Unadilla's boundary and the 664 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Unadilla's own centroid, the Northern Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Unadillalydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Unadilla's 664 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otsego County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otsego 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 Otsego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Unadilla's 664 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Unadilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 664 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Unadilla-wide figureread your own land →
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