West Valley, New York, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Valley, 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 West Valley 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 West Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
West Valley — the short answer
West Valley, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 980 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 980 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 West Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Valley's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Valley
Each reading below is measured for West Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWest Valley runs about 168 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
MeasuredWest Valley 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 West Valley is in
West Valley sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Cattaraugus County is mostly North Central Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in West Valley
Every plant below cleared West Valley's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 West Valley
Spotted lanternfly documented 29 miles from West Valley, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near West Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- WEST VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WEST VALLEY SERVICE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MACHIAS TOWN OFBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- NYSDOT BIN 3060570Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- CT 510Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- CT2104Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CT 336Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CT 355Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- CT 261Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- CT 22Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WEST VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Valley'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 West Valley.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of West Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of West Valley — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (60 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 West Valley
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 West Valley average
Your land is one point inside West Valley
Everything above resolves to West Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 980 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 West Valley Average
West Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across West Valley
- ●One soil character for all of West Valley
- ●Frost dates read at West Valley's scale: May 4 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Valley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Valley, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Valley average
How we know this about West Valley
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 West Valley’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 West Valley
When does frost risk typically end in West Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Valley typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in West Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Valley typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Valley sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 5, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Valley?
The federal record around West Valley is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Brownfields 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 West Valley?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at West Valley's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Valley'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 West Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at West Valley's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 980 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- West Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 19 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Valley's boundary and the 980 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- West Valley sits in the Northern Allegheny Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of West Valleylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Valley's 980 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cattaraugus County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cattaraugus 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 Cattaraugus County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Valley's 980 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 980 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 West Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in New York
Growing region
Nearby growing guides