Dry Valley, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dry 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 Dry 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 Dry Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dry Valley — the short answer
Dry Valley, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Dry Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dry Valley's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dry Valley
Each reading below is measured for Dry Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDry Valley runs about 168 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
MeasuredDry Valley 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 Dry Valley is in
Dry Valley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Dry Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Dry Valley
Every plant below cleared Dry Valley's own zone 6b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dry Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Dry Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dry Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 198 N01 E59 31CBBD1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Pioche Conservation CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- County Road BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Acme MinesMining · 5.4 mi
- Independence MineMining · 5.6 mi
- Blue Queen ClaimsMining · 5.8 mi
- Unnamed ShaftMining · 6.7 mi
- NBMG Sample Site 798Mining · 6.7 mi
- Alps MineMining · 7.2 mi
- Wide Awake MineMining · 7.2 mi
- Volcano MineMining · 7.3 mi
- Alps ShaftMining · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dry 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 Dry Valley.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Dry Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dry Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dry Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dry Valley, Mining runs higher than the national average — 95 sites within ~10 miles of Dry Valley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Dry 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 Dry Valley average
Your land is one point inside Dry Valley
Everything above resolves to Dry Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dry Valley Average
Dry Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dry Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Dry Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Dry Valley's scale: May 2 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dry Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dry Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dry Valley, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dry Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dry Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dry Valley average
How we know this about Dry 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 Dry 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 Dry Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Dry Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dry Valley typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Dry Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dry Valley typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dry Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dry Valley sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 3, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dry Valley?
The federal record around Dry Valley runs heavier than most — 121 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (95), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Dry Valley?
From about Sep 17 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 Oct 17 (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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dry Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dry 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 Dry Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dry Valley's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,422 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dry Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dry Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 17 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dry Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dry Valley's boundary and the 2,422 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dry Valley's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dry Valley's 2,422 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dry Valley's 2,422 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dry 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 2,422 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Dry Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaDry Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides