Fish Springs, 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.
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.
Even in Fish Springs, 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 Fish Springs 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 Fish Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fish Springs — the short answer
Fish Springs, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Fish Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fish Springs's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fish Springs
Each reading below is measured for Fish Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFish Springs runs about 149 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
MeasuredFish Springs 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 Fish Springs is in
Fish Springs sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fish Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Fish Springs
Every plant below cleared Fish Springs's own zone 6b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fish Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (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. 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 Fish Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fish Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 105 N13 E21 32ABAA1Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 105 N13 E21 32CACA1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 105 N13 E21 33BCAB1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 105 N12 E21 05AADD1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 105 N12 E21 05BCDB1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 105 N13 E21 33CDDD1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 105 N13 E21 33CDDD2Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 105 N12 E21 05BCCA1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 105 N12 E21 04BCAC1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 105 N12 E21 05DBDD1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 105 N13 E20 36ACAA BORDANitrate · 1.7 mi
- 105 N12 E20 01ABAA1Nitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fish Springs'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 Fish Springs.
Total Sites
736
within ~10 miles of Fish Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fish Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fish Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fish Springs, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 574 sites within ~10 miles of Fish Springs. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fish Springs
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 Fish Springs average
Your land is one point inside Fish Springs
Everything above resolves to Fish Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Fish Springs Average
Fish Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fish Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Fish Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Fish Springs's scale: May 14 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fish Springs's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fish Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fish Springs, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fish Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fish Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fish Springs average
How we know this about Fish Springs
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 Fish Springs’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 Fish Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Fish Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fish Springs typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Fish Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fish Springs typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fish Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fish Springs sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 26, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fish Springs?
The federal record around Fish Springs is a meaningful one — 736 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (574), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles 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 Fish Springs?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fish Springs 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fish Springs's scale — its 6b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fish Springs'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 Fish Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fish Springs's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,883 acres it covers and 736 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fish Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fish Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 10 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 736 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fish Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fish Springs's boundary and the 5,883 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fish Springs'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 Fish Springs's 5,883 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fish Springs's 5,883 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fish Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,883 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Fish Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaFish Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides