Wanakah, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Wanakah, 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 Wanakah 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 Wanakah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wanakah — the short answer
Wanakah, New York: USDA zone 6b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 771 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 771 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 6b is Wanakah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wanakah's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wanakah
Each reading below is measured for Wanakah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWanakah runs about 224 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
MeasuredWanakah sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Wanakah is in
Wanakah sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wanakah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Erie County.
What Grows in Wanakah
Every plant below cleared Wanakah's own zone 6b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wanakah?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Wanakah
Spotted lanternfly documented 10 miles from Wanakah, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wanakah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wanakah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E1058Nitrate · 1600 ft
- CLOVERBANK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NEHA ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ECSD 3 WANAKAH PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FREDS LAKEVIEW SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 1001390Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- NIAGARA MOHAWK STATION 81 SUB - SHALETONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- BRIERWOOD COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- OPERATING ENGINEERS LOCAL 17 TRAINING FUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PB ACQUISITION COMPANY NASSAU LLC DBA PEP BOYS #6560Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- ECSD 3 MT VERNON #1 PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DAVIS LAKESHORE AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wanakah'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 Wanakah.
Total Sites
990
within ~10 miles of Wanakah
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
21 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wanakah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wanakah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wanakah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wanakah — Superfund (21 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (73 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Wanakah
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 Wanakah average
Your land is one point inside Wanakah
Everything above resolves to Wanakah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 771 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 Wanakah Average
Wanakah Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Wanakah
- ●One soil character for all of Wanakah
- ●Frost dates read at Wanakah's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wanakah's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wanakah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wanakah, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wanakah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wanakah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wanakah average
How we know this about Wanakah
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 Wanakah’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 Wanakah
When does frost risk typically end in Wanakah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wanakah typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Wanakah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wanakah typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wanakah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wanakah sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Nov 6, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wanakah?
The federal record around Wanakah is a meaningful one — 990 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (461), the nearest Nitrate 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 Wanakah?
From about Oct 21 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 Nov 20 (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 Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wanakah's scale — its 6b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wanakah'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 Wanakah’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wanakah's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 771 acres it covers and 990 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wanakah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wanakah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 20 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 990 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wanakah, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wanakah's boundary and the 771 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wanakah's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wanakahlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wanakah's 771 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Erie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Erie 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 Erie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wanakah's 771 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wanakah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 771 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Wanakah-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Wider growing context
What grows across New YorkWanakah sits outside our named growing regions, so New York as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides