Gunnison, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gunnison, 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 Gunnison 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 Gunnison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gunnison — the short answer
Gunnison, Colorado: USDA zone 4a, about 117 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~117
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 4a is Gunnison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gunnison's 117-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gunnison
Each reading below is measured for Gunnison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGunnison runs about 117 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
MeasuredGunnison sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Gunnison is in
Gunnison sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Gunnison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gunnison County.
What Grows in Gunnison
Every plant below cleared Gunnison's own zone 4a and its 117-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gunnison?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Gunnison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gunnison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Blue Mesa Sub StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Diamond Shamrock 4117Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Wet Grocer Discount LiquorsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GUNNISON VALLEY HEALTHBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Gunnison RcagUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- US Forest ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SWEITZER OIL INC AMOCO FOOD STOREBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Western Slope ConnectionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- High Country StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Humdinger SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Vacant FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gunnison Sporting GoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gunnison'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 Gunnison.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gunnison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gunnison
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gunnison, Mining runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Gunnison. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Gunnison
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 Gunnison average
Your land is one point inside Gunnison
Everything above resolves to Gunnison as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Gunnison Average
Gunnison Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Gunnison
- ●One soil character for all of Gunnison
- ●Frost dates read at Gunnison's scale: May 26 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gunnison's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gunnison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gunnison, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gunnison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gunnison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gunnison average
How we know this about Gunnison
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gunnison’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Gunnison
When does frost risk typically end in Gunnison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gunnison typically lands around May 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Gunnison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gunnison typically arrives around Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 6, so the watching starts about Aug 21 — about 117 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gunnison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gunnison sees about 117 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Sep 6, about 82 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gunnison?
The federal record around Gunnison is a meaningful one — 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gunnison?
With about 117 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gunnison 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 145 to 173 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Gunnison's scale — its 4a band and its 117-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gunnison'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 Gunnison’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gunnison's own scale — its own ~117-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,103 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gunnison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gunnison's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 26 and Sep 20 and the ~117-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gunnison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gunnison's boundary and the 3,103 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~117-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gunnison's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gunnison's 3,103 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gunnison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gunnison County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Gunnison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gunnison's 3,103 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gunnison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,103 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gunnison-wide figureread your own land →