Nye County, in Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Nye County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Nye 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 Nye County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nye County — the short answer
Nye County, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 128 days between hard freezes, across 11.6M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~128
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 11.6M 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 Nye County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nye County's 128-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Nye County
Across a year, Nye County accumulates about 1,293 growing degree days above 50°F, about 850 fewer than the middle Nevada county — no other Nevada county banks fewer. 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 Nye County
Across Nye County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Stewval, Unsel, and Yermo are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very gravelly sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.5, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Nye County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Nye County as well drained — but another 10% drains differently: 5% somewhat excessively drained, 2% poorly drained.
Stewval is the most extensive named soil at 6% of mapped acres, then Unsel (4%) and Yermo (3%).
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 Nye County
Each reading below is measured for Nye 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 Nye 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 Nye County runs about pH 7.5–8.5, 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
MeasuredNye County runs about 128 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
MeasuredNye 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 Nye County is in
Nye County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Basin and Range (84%) and Mojave Basin and Range (16%). 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 Nye County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Nye County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 128-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 Nye County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
Documented around Nye County
- monarch butterfly61 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Nye County
USGS estimates 2,109 lb of Glyphosate on Nye County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Chlorpyrifos (951 lb) and 2,4-d (763 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 Nye County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Nye County — 1,187 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Nye 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 Nye County
Closest first, across Nye County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 156 N01 E50 06 6 Kawich vadose 1XNitrate · 1.9 mi
- Gold Bar GroupMining · 8.1 mi
- Golden Arrow GroupMining · 8.8 mi
- Golden Arrow PropertyMining · 8.8 mi
- 173A S01 E50 23 1Nitrate · 10.2 mi
- Farris PropertyMining · 11.6 mi
- Reveille ProjectMining · 12.0 mi
- 156 N03 E51 19BA 1Nitrate · 12.2 mi
- 149 N01 E47 02BAB 1Nitrate · 12.3 mi
- 149 N03 E48 03AC 1Nitrate · 14.3 mi
- Kietzke MineMining · 14.7 mi
- Kietzke PropertyMining · 14.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nye 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 Nye County.
Severity Distribution
across Nye County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nye County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 701 sites across Nye 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 Nye 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 Nye County average
Your land is one point inside Nye County
Everything above resolves to Nye County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 11.6M 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 Nye County Average
Nye County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Nye County
- ●One soil character for all of Nye County
- ●Frost dates read at Nye County's scale: May 31 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nye County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Nye County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nye County, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nye County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nye County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nye County average
How we know this about Nye 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 Nye County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Nye County
When does frost risk typically end in Nye County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nye County typically lands around May 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Nye County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nye County sees about 128 frost-free days — roughly May 31 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 21 to Sep 22, about 93 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nye County?
The federal record around Nye County runs heavier than most — 1,187 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (701), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.9 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 Nye County?
With about 128 frost-free days between hard freezes, Nye 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 156 to 184 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 31 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Nye County's scale — its 6b band and its 128-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nye 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 Nye County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Nye County's own scale — its own ~128-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,187 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nye County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nye County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~128-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Nye CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,187 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Nye County's boundary and the 11,636,414 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~128-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Nye County spans, Central Basin and Range the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Nye County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Nye 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 Nye County — the ~128 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 Nye County's 11,636,414 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,187 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 Nye Countyread your own land →