Amargosa Valley, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Amargosa Valley, 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 Amargosa Valley 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 Amargosa Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amargosa Valley — the short answer
Amargosa Valley, Nevada: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 63K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 63K 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 8b is Amargosa Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amargosa Valley's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amargosa Valley
Each reading below is measured for Amargosa Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmargosa Valley runs about 288 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAmargosa Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Amargosa Valley is in
Amargosa Valley sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Amargosa Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nye County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Amargosa Valley
Every plant below cleared Amargosa Valley's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amargosa Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Amargosa Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amargosa Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 230 S16 E49 09DCCC1 Amargosa Elementary SchoolNitrate · 2.2 mi
- Nye County Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Amargosa Valley Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LIBERTY PROCESSINGBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- WEISS ROAD DRUM SITESuperfund · 3.0 mi
- FRONTIER ROAD DRUM SITESuperfund · 3.6 mi
- Spectre Mountain J Parcel 054Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- US ECOLOGY AMARGOSABrownfields · 3.8 mi
- Nickell's Quik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Ponderosa Dairies - ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- PONDEROSA DAIRIES 1, 2, AND 3CAFO · 3.9 mi
- 230 S17 E49 15BCBB2 Amargosa Desert 9a (AD-9a)Nitrate · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amargosa Valley'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 Amargosa Valley.
Total Sites
31
within ~10 miles of Amargosa Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Amargosa Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amargosa Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amargosa Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Amargosa Valley — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Amargosa Valley
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 Amargosa Valley average
Your land is one point inside Amargosa Valley
Everything above resolves to Amargosa Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 63K 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 Amargosa Valley Average
Amargosa Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Amargosa Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Amargosa Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Amargosa Valley's scale: Feb 12 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amargosa Valley's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amargosa Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amargosa Valley, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amargosa Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amargosa Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amargosa Valley average
How we know this about Amargosa Valley
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 Amargosa Valley’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 Amargosa Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Amargosa Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amargosa Valley typically lands around Feb 12, 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 Mar 5.
When is the first frost in Amargosa Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amargosa Valley typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amargosa Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amargosa Valley sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 13, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amargosa Valley?
The federal record around Amargosa Valley is a meaningful one — 31 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Amargosa Valley?
From about Oct 28 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Amargosa Valley's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amargosa Valley'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 Amargosa Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amargosa Valley's own scale — its own ~288-day season between 28°F freezes, the 63,142 acres it covers and 31 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amargosa Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amargosa Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 12 and Nov 27 and the ~288-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 31 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amargosa Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amargosa Valley's boundary and the 63,142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Amargosa Valley sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amargosa Valley's 63,142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nye County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nye County
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Nye County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amargosa Valley's 63,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amargosa Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 63,142 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.2 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 Amargosa Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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