What USDA hardiness zone is Steuben County, New York?

Steuben County, New York spans USDA hardiness zones 5b to 6a. 57% of its ZIP codes are zone 5b, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Steuben County, New York?

The median last spring freeze runs April 30 – May 18 across the 10 NOAA weather stations serving Steuben County, New York, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

New York

Planting zones in Steuben County, New York

This county spans USDA zones 5b to 6a, so there is no single zone for Steuben County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 57% of its ZIP codes are zone 5b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 5b–6a 2 zones across 28 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 28 28 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 10 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 1,391 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Steuben County, New York as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Steuben County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 1 – October 22 across the 10 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around March 5 – March 23 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 30 – May 18 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 10 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 10 NOAA stations serving this county counts May 18 – October 1 as growing season (136 days). Widening to any single station gives April 30 – October 22 (175 days).

That is a 39-day difference inside one county — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Steuben County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 57% in zone 5b and wrong for the other 43%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
5b	16	57%
6a	12	43%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 30 – May 18

First fall freeze October 1 – October 22

Across the 10 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 135–173 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 77.1–81.6 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 9.0–12.3" across those 9 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 87% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 79 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Steuben County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
14529	6a	Dansville, NY	6.7 km
14572	6a	Dansville Muni AP, NY	12.4 km
14801	5b	Addison, NY	4.8 km
14807	5b	Hornell Almond Dam, NY	8.0 km
14808	6a	Dansville Muni AP, NY	20.1 km
14809	5b	Bath, NY	11.8 km
14810	5b	Bath, NY	0.2 km
14819	5b	Bath, NY	15.9 km
14820	5b	Addison, NY	15.3 km
14821	5b	Addison, NY	15.6 km
14823	5b	Hornell Almond Dam, NY	18.7 km
14826	5b	Dansville Muni AP, NY	19.9 km
14827	6a	Corning, NY	8.0 km
14830	5b	Corning, NY	3.6 km
14839	6a	Alfred, NY	18.6 km
14840	6a	Bath, NY	16.3 km
14843	5b	Hornell Almond Dam, NY	5.9 km
14855	5b	Addison, NY	22.2 km
14856	5b	Bath, NY	3.6 km
14858	6a	Cowanesque Dam, PA	4.7 km
14870	6a	Corning, NY	5.6 km
14873	6a	Bath, NY	19.8 km
14874	6a	Penn Yan AP, NY	15.4 km
14877	5b	Wellsville, NY	22.4 km
14879	5b	Bath, NY	13.3 km
14885	6a	Addison, NY	28.4 km
14893	6a	Penn Yan AP, NY	19.8 km
14898	5b	Addison, NY	17.0 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Steuben County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 10 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	March 5 – March 23	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	March 5 – March 23	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 19 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 26 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 26 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 26 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	April 2 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	April 9 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 16 – May 4	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 23 – May 11	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	May 7 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 14 – June 1	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Steuben County

Zone 6a carries 51 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 5b carries 48. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to June 1 to be careful. Median April 30 – May 18 across 10 stations; April 18 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 17 to be careful. Median October 1 – October 22 across 10 stations; November 4 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 10 stations behind these numbers

All 10 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 72 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Addison, NY	USC00300023	May 14	October 5	144 days
Alfred, NY	USC00300085	May 18	October 1	135 days
Bath, NY	USC00300448	May 12	October 3	144 days
Corning, NY	USC00301787	May 17	October 2	139 days
Cowanesque Dam, PA	USC00361838	May 9	October 12	155 days
Dansville Muni AP, NY	USW00094704	May 1	October 19	170 days
Dansville, NY	USC00301974	May 4	October 16	163 days
Hornell Almond Dam, NY	USC00303983	May 11	October 8	150 days
Penn Yan AP, NY	USW00054778	April 30	October 22	173 days
Wellsville, NY	USC00309072	May 15	October 2	140 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Steuben County sits in New York. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of New York

Counties with the same zones — 5b–6a

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Trunk wrapZone 5b is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 5b, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.