Syracuse, Ohio, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Syracuse, 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 Syracuse 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 Syracuse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Syracuse — the short answer
Syracuse, Ohio: USDA zone 6b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 563 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 563 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 Syracuse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Syracuse's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Syracuse
Each reading below is measured for Syracuse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSyracuse runs about 208 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
MeasuredSyracuse 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 Syracuse is in
Syracuse sits in the Western Allegheny Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Syracuse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Meigs County.
What Grows in Syracuse
Every plant below cleared Syracuse's own zone 6b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's Ohio profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Syracuse?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Syracuse
Survey cells within 31 miles of Syracuse checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 69 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Syracuse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Syracuse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ASHLAND BRAND MKTG 490-250993Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- LARRY'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- J. D. DRILLING CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FORMER SOHIO GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TNT PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- HARRY HOFFMAN GARAGE 490-0250805Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NEW HAVEN WASTEWATER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WASTEWATER PUMP STATION # 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GAS PLUS NEW HAVENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASTEWATER PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NEW HAVEN MARATHONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #577Brownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Syracuse'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 Syracuse.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Syracuse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Syracuse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Syracuse, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Syracuse. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Syracuse
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 Syracuse average
Your land is one point inside Syracuse
Everything above resolves to Syracuse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 563 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 Syracuse Average
Syracuse Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Syracuse
- ●One soil character for all of Syracuse
- ●Frost dates read at Syracuse's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Syracuse's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Syracuse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Syracuse, Ohio — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Syracuse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Syracuse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Syracuse average
How we know this about Syracuse
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 Syracuse’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 Syracuse
When does frost risk typically end in Syracuse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Syracuse typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Syracuse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Syracuse 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 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Syracuse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Syracuse sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Syracuse?
The federal record around Syracuse is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Syracuse?
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 Syracuse's scale — its 6b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Syracuse'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 Syracuse’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Syracuse's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 563 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Syracuse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Syracuse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 31 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Syracuse, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Syracuse's boundary and the 563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Syracuse's own centroid, the Western Allegheny PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Syracuse 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 Syracuse's 563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Meigs County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Meigs County
- The growing challenges every Ohio grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Ohio
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Meigs County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Syracuse's 563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Syracuse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 563 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Syracuse-wide figureread your own land →
More in Ohio
Growing regions
Nearby growing guides