Crystal Bay, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Crystal Bay, 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 Crystal Bay 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 Crystal Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crystal Bay — the short answer
Crystal Bay, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 289 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 289 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 6b is Crystal Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crystal Bay's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crystal Bay
Each reading below is measured for Crystal Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrystal Bay runs about 142 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
MeasuredCrystal Bay 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 Crystal Bay is in
Crystal Bay sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Crystal Bay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Washoe County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Crystal Bay
Every plant below cleared Crystal Bay's own zone 6b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crystal Bay?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Crystal Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crystal Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stillwater Cove Condo AssocUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- N Lake Tahoe Fire Protection DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 090 N16 E18 19BCA 1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- Sewage Pump Station #15Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Crystal Bay Club CasinoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Tahoe BiltmoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILLIAM M LANE & LILY P LANE TRUSTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KINGS BEACH CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SAUERHAUS INC DBA KINGS BEACH CHEVRONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS KINGS BEACH SRABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- BURDICK EXCAVATION/VEEDER VIEW LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- JR KRAUSS LTDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crystal Bay'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 Crystal Bay.
Total Sites
236
within ~10 miles of Crystal Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crystal Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crystal Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crystal Bay, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Crystal Bay. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Crystal Bay
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 Crystal Bay average
Your land is one point inside Crystal Bay
Everything above resolves to Crystal Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 289 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 Crystal Bay Average
Crystal Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Crystal Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Crystal Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Crystal Bay's scale: May 24 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crystal Bay's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crystal Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crystal Bay, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crystal Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crystal Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crystal Bay average
How we know this about Crystal Bay
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 Crystal Bay’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 Crystal Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Crystal Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crystal Bay typically lands around May 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Crystal Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crystal Bay typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crystal Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crystal Bay sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 29, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crystal Bay?
The federal record around Crystal Bay is a meaningful one — 236 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (106), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Crystal Bay?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Crystal Bay 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Crystal Bay's scale — its 6b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crystal Bay'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 Crystal Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crystal Bay's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 289 acres it covers and 236 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crystal Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crystal Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Oct 13 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 236 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crystal Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crystal Bay's boundary and the 289 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crystal Bay sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crystal Bay's 289 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washoe 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 Washoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crystal Bay's 289 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crystal Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 289 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Crystal Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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