The Carson Valley spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Nevada's oldest farm valley — Carson River bottomland under the Sierra front where cold-air drainage keeps frost in play into June: a 6b-7b floor with a 147-164-day window, distinct from both Tahoe above and the desert basins east. A short list that earns its place here — tomato, grape, pomegranate, and sagebrush — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
The Carson Valley spans Nevada.
Your yard isn't all of the Carson Valley.
The Carson Valley spans USDA zones 6b-7b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Carson Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Carson Valley — the short answer
The Carson Valley: USDA zones 6b-7b, 147–164 frost-free days, in Nevada.
- USDA zones
- 6b-7b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 147–164 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Towns
- 6
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- Town cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Carson Valley
Plants matched to the Carson Valley's USDA zones 6b-7b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Carson Valley
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Carson Valley’s USDA zones 6b-7b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground around the Carson Valley
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across the county containing the Carson Valley — the ground the Carson Valley sits in, read at the only grain the survey publishes.
In the county containing the Carson Valley, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, at 55% of mapped acres, followed by Aridisols (30%), Entisols (13%) and Alfisols (1%). Eight soil orders appear in that record, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Indian Creek, Duco, and Loomer.
74% of those acres are well drained, and another 6% somewhat excessively drained, 4% poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 6.7–7.0 in that county’s own record.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
6.7–7.0
Hydric soils
2%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Carson Valley
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are the record for the county containing the Carson Valley. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records74% of the mapped acres across the county containing the Carson Valley are well drained — ground that drains quickly. The survey maps this ground county-wide, so it describes the setting the Carson Valley sits in rather than the valley floor alone.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the county containing the Carson Valley runs pH 6.7–7.0 — near neutral in the one record covering it.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Carson Valley — and how to grow with it.
Across Douglas County, which contains the Carson Valley, the federal record holds 1,192 documented sites, mostly Nitrate (900), Underground Storage Tanks (137) and Brownfields (86).
That is the containing county's count — this region is a smaller piece of that ground, so it is context, not a reading of any one lot. Open the map outlined to the Carson Valley to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the county containing the Carson Valley
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Carson Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 900 sites across the county containing the Carson Valley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Carson Valley
Everything above resolves to the Carson Valley as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 6b-7b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Carson Valley Average
Carson Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b-7b, averaged across Carson Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Carson Valley
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carson Valley's 6b-7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Carson Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Carson Valley — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carson Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Carson Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carson Valley average
How we know this about the Carson Valley
The boundary: the region's own towns — a footprint finer than any county, because the county average would misread this microclimate. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the towns inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Carson Valley
What hardiness zone is the Carson Valley?
The Carson Valley spans USDA hardiness zones 6b-7b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's own towns. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Carson Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Carson Valley's towns mostly run 148 to 158 frost-free days, median 154 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 6 member towns). That 10-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 6 towns, and each town guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Carson Valley?
Across the Carson Valley, the middle half of member towns see their last 28°F hard freeze between May 7 and May 12 (median May 10), and their first fall freeze between Oct 6 and Oct 13. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about May 31, and elevation decides which end of a 5-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Carson Valley?
The Carson Valley's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Grape, Pomegranate, Sagebrush, Pinon Pine. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Carson Valley defined?
The Carson Valley is a true microclimate — smaller than the county that contains it, with a growing reality of its own. So this page is built from the region's own 6 towns, each carrying its own hardiness zone and frost record, rather than from a county average measured somewhere else.
Which states does the Carson Valley cover?
The Carson Valley spans Nevada. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Mojave Desert, Humboldt River Corridor, Truckee Meadows / Reno, Northeastern Nevada High Desert (Elko / Ruby Valley / Ely), Lahontan Valley / Fallon, and Pahrump Valley share at least one state with the Carson Valley. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Carson Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Carson Valley's own scale — the zone 6b-7b band across its footprint, a median 154-day season across its 6 towns and 1,192 documented federal contamination records across its one county, 1,192 of them in Douglas County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 6b-7b aggregated across all 6 towns in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 6 towns this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 6 towns run 148 to 158 frost-free days, median 154NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 1,192 documented federal contamination records across its one county, 1,192 of them in Douglas County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 55% Mollisols, topsoil pH 6.7–7.0, area-weighted across its one mapped countyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 6b-7bfrom Nevada
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 10-day range your ground sits at — 148 days at one extreme, 158 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Carson Valley
State growing guides
Towns in this region
The county containing this region
Other growing regions across Nevada
A hot, low desert of creosote flats and Joshua trees where growing means irrigation, heat-loving crops, and shade — pomegranates, dates, and desert-adapted beds.
Northern Nevada's warm irrigated middle ground: the Humboldt River's zone 6b towns — Winnemucca, Lovelock, and Battle Mountain — run a longer, milder season than the 5a high desert around Elko yet stay cooler than the western valleys, with roughly 160–175 frost-free days behind the famed Lovelock cantaloupe.
The high-desert valley where Reno and Sparks sit in the Sierra Nevada's rain shadow — alkaline, irrigation-dependent ground and a short zone-7a season of about 150 frost-free days, with killing frost holding into mid-May.
The coldest, highest, shortest-season corner of Nevada. Where Reno gardens run zone 7a and Las Vegas 9a, Elko sits at zone 5a with roughly 110 frost-free days and the White Pine uplands around Ely at 6a with about 136 — a full two-plus zones colder and 100-plus fewer growing days than anywhere else on the state's pages. Growing here means a cold-hardy, short-season palette raced against a window that opens in late May and closes by mid-September.
The Newlands Project's century-old irrigated oasis — Fallon's Hearts O' Gold cantaloupe ground, a zone-7a valley floor with a documented 179-day season in a county whose average runs 40 days shorter.
A warm desert basin over the hill from Death Valley — the committed record reads 8b with a 268-288-day season, two zones warmer and more than four months longer than the county row averaged across Nye's cold central-Nevada ranges; Nevada's unlikely vineyard-and-orchard pocket.