Yorkville, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Yorkville, 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 Yorkville 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 Yorkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Yorkville — the short answer
Yorkville, New York: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 429 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 429 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 Yorkville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yorkville's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yorkville
Each reading below is measured for Yorkville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYorkville runs about 197 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
MeasuredYorkville 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 Yorkville is in
Yorkville sits in the Eastern Great Lakes Lowlands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Yorkville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Oneida County.
What Grows in Yorkville
Every plant below cleared Yorkville's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New York profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yorkville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Yorkville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Yorkville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 36 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Yorkville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yorkville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MICHAEL J. SPOHNUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BARNEY'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- JET CLEANERSBrownfields · 650 ft
- PELNIK WRECKING CO., INC. (FORMER)Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- SEARS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MEYDA STAINED GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CENTRAL NY COACH LINES, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CARBONE'S SERVICENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- WHITESBORO SCHOOL AMINISTRATION BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALLY'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YORKVILLE(V) MUNICIPAL BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WHITESTOWN INDUSTRIAL CENTerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yorkville'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 Yorkville.
Total Sites
1,023
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yorkville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yorkville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Yorkville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Yorkville
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 Yorkville average
Your land is one point inside Yorkville
Everything above resolves to Yorkville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 429 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 Yorkville Average
Yorkville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Yorkville
- ●One soil character for all of Yorkville
- ●Frost dates read at Yorkville's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yorkville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yorkville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yorkville, New York — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yorkville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yorkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yorkville average
How we know this about Yorkville
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 Yorkville’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 Yorkville
When does frost risk typically end in Yorkville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yorkville typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Yorkville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yorkville typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yorkville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yorkville sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 17, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yorkville?
The federal record around Yorkville is a meaningful one — 1,023 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (601), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Yorkville?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yorkville's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yorkville'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 Yorkville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Yorkville's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 429 acres it covers and 1,023 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yorkville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yorkville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 31 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,023 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yorkville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yorkville's boundary and the 429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yorkville's own centroid, the Eastern Great Lakes LowlandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Yorkville 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 Yorkville's 429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yorkville's 429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yorkville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Yorkville-wide figureread your own land →
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