Truckee, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Truckee, 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 Truckee 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 Truckee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Truckee — the short answer
Truckee, California: USDA zone 6b, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 Truckee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Truckee's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Truckee
Each reading below is measured for Truckee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTruckee runs about 120 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTruckee 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 Truckee is in
Truckee sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Truckee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nevada County.
What Grows in Truckee
Every plant below cleared Truckee's own zone 6b and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Truckee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Truckee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Truckee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CASTLE PEAK PAINTING COBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- TRUCKEE NORTH TAHOE MATERIALS READY MIX PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- MARSH VENTURES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MOORE AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- AM-X CONSTRUCTION & EXCAVATION INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- STEWART'S MARINE SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- AUTO PARTNERS DBA AUTO GUARDIANBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- THE AUTO & TIRE DOCTOR INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SUMMIT BUILDERSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- AVANT WERKSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- THE AUTO AND TIRE DOCTOR DBA THE AUTO DOCTOR EXPRESS LUBEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Truckee'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 Truckee.
Total Sites
200
within ~10 miles of Truckee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Truckee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Truckee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Truckee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Truckee — PFAS (3 sites) and Brownfields (139 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Truckee
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 Truckee average
Your land is one point inside Truckee
Everything above resolves to Truckee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Truckee Average
Truckee Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Truckee
- ●One soil character for all of Truckee
- ●Frost dates read at Truckee's scale: Jun 1 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Truckee's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Truckee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Truckee, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Truckee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Truckee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Truckee average
How we know this about Truckee
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 Truckee’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 Truckee
When does frost risk typically end in Truckee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Truckee typically lands around Jun 1, 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 Jun 22.
When is the first frost in Truckee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Truckee typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Truckee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Truckee sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly Jun 1 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 22 to Sep 15, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Truckee?
The federal record around Truckee is a meaningful one — 200 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (139), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 gardeners stretch the season in Truckee?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Truckee rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 148 to 176 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 1 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Truckee's scale — its 6b band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Truckee'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 Truckee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Truckee's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,692 acres it covers and 200 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Truckee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Truckee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 1 and Sep 29 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 200 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Truckee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Truckee's boundary and the 20,692 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Truckee's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Truckee's 20,692 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nevada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nevada County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Nevada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Truckee's 20,692 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Truckee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,692 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Truckee-wide figureread your own land →