Lander County, in Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Lander County lies within the Humboldt River Corridor — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lander County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lander 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 Lander County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lander County — the short answer
Lander County, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 3.5M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 3.5M 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 6b is Lander County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lander County's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Lander County
Across a year, Lander County accumulates about 2,015 growing degree days above 50°F, about 128 fewer than the middle Nevada county — ahead of 7 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 Lander County
Across Lander County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Orovada, Beoska, and Creemon are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–8.3, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lander County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Lander County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 5% somewhat poorly drained, 3% poorly drained.
Orovada is the most extensive named soil at 4% of mapped acres, then Beoska (3%) and Creemon (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 Lander County
Each reading below is measured for Lander 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 Lander 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 Lander County runs about pH 7.2–8.3, 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
MeasuredLander County runs about 163 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLander County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lander County is in
Lander County sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lander County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lander County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 163-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 Lander County?
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 Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Lander County
- monarch butterfly61 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lander County
USGS estimates 3,038 lb of Glyphosate on Lander County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (2,898 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (1,181 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 Lander County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lander County — 542 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Lander 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 Lander County
Closest first, across Lander County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- United Parcel ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Donjek #1Mining · 13.6 mi
- A.J.C. No.5 ClaimMining · 13.7 mi
- Pine ClaimMining · 14.0 mi
- PineMining · 14.1 mi
- Queen ShaftMining · 14.5 mi
- QueenMining · 14.5 mi
- Queen ProspectMining · 14.5 mi
- Tss Claims.Mining · 14.6 mi
- A.J.C. No. 5 ClaimMining · 14.6 mi
- 058 N25 E42 16CBBB1Nitrate · 14.9 mi
- 058 N26 E43 30ABBB1Nitrate · 15.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lander 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 Lander County.
Sources Checked
across Lander County
Severity Distribution
across Lander County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lander County, two things run higher than the national average across Lander County — Mining (428 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). 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.
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 Lander 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 Lander County average
Your land is one point inside Lander County
Everything above resolves to Lander County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 3.5M 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 Lander County Average
Lander County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lander County
- ●One soil character for all of Lander County
- ●Frost dates read at Lander County's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lander County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lander County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lander County, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lander County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lander County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lander County average
How we know this about Lander 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 Lander County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lander County
When does frost risk typically end in Lander County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lander County typically lands around Apr 30, 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 May 21.
How long is the growing season in Lander County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lander County sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 26, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lander County?
The federal record around Lander County runs heavier than most — 542 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (428), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Lander County's scale — its 6b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lander 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 Lander County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lander County's own scale — its own ~163-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 542 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lander County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lander County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lander CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 542 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lander County's boundary and the 3,532,315 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lander County sitting wholly inside the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lander County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lander 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 Lander County — the ~163 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 Lander County's 3,532,315 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 542 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 Lander Countyread your own land →