Pitkin, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor okra, cranberry, cilantro, and zucchini, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pitkin, 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 Pitkin 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 Pitkin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pitkin — the short answer
Pitkin, Colorado: USDA zone 4a, about 110 days between hard freezes, across 165 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~110
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 165 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 Pitkin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pitkin's 110-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pitkin
Each reading below is measured for Pitkin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPitkin runs about 110 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
MeasuredPitkin 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 Pitkin is in
Pitkin sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pitkin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gunnison County.
What Grows in Pitkin
Every plant below cleared Pitkin's own zone 4a and its 110-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pitkin?
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 May 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 21 — 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 Pitkin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pitkin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Silver Plume Store LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Pitkin State Fish HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Mine XMining · 1.2 mi
- Red JacketMining · 1.6 mi
- TerribleMining · 1.8 mi
- RooseveltMining · 2.7 mi
- UnknownMining · 2.7 mi
- Robinson & Ferry, Silent Friend, EldoradoMining · 3.0 mi
- Silent FriendMining · 3.0 mi
- Swiss BellMining · 3.1 mi
- Abe Lincoln TunnelMining · 3.1 mi
- SacramentoMining · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pitkin'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 Pitkin.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Pitkin
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pitkin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pitkin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pitkin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pitkin — Mining (186 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pitkin
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 Pitkin average
Your land is one point inside Pitkin
Everything above resolves to Pitkin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 165 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 Pitkin Average
Pitkin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Pitkin
- ●One soil character for all of Pitkin
- ●Frost dates read at Pitkin's scale: Jun 3 to Sep 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pitkin's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pitkin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pitkin, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pitkin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pitkin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pitkin average
How we know this about Pitkin
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 Pitkin’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 Pitkin
When does frost risk typically end in Pitkin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pitkin typically lands around Jun 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Pitkin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pitkin typically arrives around Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 7, so the watching starts about Aug 22 — about 110 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pitkin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pitkin sees about 110 frost-free days — roughly Jun 3 through Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 24 to Sep 7, about 75 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pitkin?
The federal record around Pitkin runs heavier than most — 193 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (186), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Pitkin?
With about 110 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pitkin 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 138 to 166 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 3 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pitkin's scale — its 4a band and its 110-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pitkin'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 Pitkin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pitkin's own scale — its own ~110-day season between 28°F freezes, the 165 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pitkin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pitkin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 3 and Sep 21 and the ~110-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pitkin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pitkin's boundary and the 165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~110-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pitkin's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pitkin's 165 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 Pitkin's 165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pitkin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 165 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 Pitkin-wide figureread your own land →