Elko County, in Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Elko County lies within the Northeastern Nevada High Desert (Elko / Ruby Valley / Ely) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Elko County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Elko County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Elko County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elko County — the short answer
Elko County, Nevada: USDA zone 5a, about 110 days between hard freezes, across 11.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~110
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 11.0M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 5a is Elko County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elko County's 110-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Elko County
Across a year, Elko County accumulates about 1,501 growing degree days above 50°F, about 642 fewer than the middle Nevada county — ahead of 2 of Nevada’s 17 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Elko County
Across Elko County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Cleavage, Chiara, and Sumine are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Elko County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Elko County as well drained — but another 7% drains differently: 2% somewhat excessively drained, 2% poorly drained.
Cleavage is the most extensive named soil at 4% of mapped acres, then Chiara (3%) and Sumine (2%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Elko County
Each reading below is measured for Elko County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Elko County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
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
MeasuredTopsoil across Elko County runs about pH 7.2–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredElko County 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
MeasuredElko County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Elko County is in
Elko County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Basin and Range (59%) and Northern Basin and Range (41%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Elko County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Elko County's own USDA zone 5a and its own 110-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile.
Is it too late to plant in Elko County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 13 — 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.
Documented around Elko County
- monarch butterfly56 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Elko County
USGS estimates 14,328 lb of 2,4-d on Elko County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (3,931 lb) and Glyphosate (3,238 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Elko County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Elko County — 1,196 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Elko County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Elko County
Closest first, across Elko County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 041 N36 E60 06ACBD1Nitrate · 9.1 mi
- Nevada Department of TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 12.5 mi
- Koa CampgroundUnderground Storage Tanks · 12.5 mi
- Deeth Honor Camp-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 13.9 mi
- AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.6 mi
- Deeth Volunteer Fire Dept-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.6 mi
- P E Marble dba Seventy One RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.6 mi
- Ryndon Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 18.2 mi
- Wells, TungstenMining · 19.1 mi
- Great Basin Beverage LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 19.4 mi
- Wells Rural Electrical CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 19.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8830Brownfields · 19.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elko County'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 Elko County.
Total Sites
1,196
across Elko County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Elko County
Severity Distribution
across Elko County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elko County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 799 sites across Elko County. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Elko County
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 Elko County average
Your land is one point inside Elko County
Everything above resolves to Elko County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 11.0M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Elko County Average
Elko County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Elko County
- ●One soil character for all of Elko County
- ●Frost dates read at Elko County's scale: May 26 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elko County's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Elko County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elko County, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elko County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elko County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elko County average
How we know this about Elko County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Elko County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Elko County
When does frost risk typically end in Elko County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elko County 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.
How long is the growing season in Elko County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elko County sees about 110 frost-free days — roughly May 26 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 16 to Aug 30, about 75 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elko County?
The federal record around Elko County runs heavier than most — 1,196 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (799), the nearest Nitrate record about 9.1 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 Elko County?
With about 110 frost-free days between hard freezes, Elko County 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 May 26 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Elko County's scale — its 5a band and its 110-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elko County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Nevada's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Elko County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Elko County's own scale — its own ~110-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,196 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elko County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elko County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~110-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Elko CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,196 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 9.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Elko County's boundary and the 10,990,903 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~110-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Elko County spans, Central Basin and Range the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Elko County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Elko County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Nevada grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nevada
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Elko County — the ~110 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elko County's 10,990,903 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,196 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Elko Countyread your own land →