Fort McDermitt, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Fort McDermitt, 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 Fort McDermitt 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 Fort McDermitt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort McDermitt — the short answer
Fort McDermitt, Nevada: USDA zone 6a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 6a is Fort McDermitt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort McDermitt's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort McDermitt
Each reading below is measured for Fort McDermitt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort McDermitt runs about 132 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
MeasuredFort McDermitt sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Fort McDermitt is in
Fort McDermitt sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort McDermitt's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Humboldt County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort McDermitt
Every plant below cleared Fort McDermitt's own zone 6a and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort McDermitt?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — 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 Fort McDermitt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort McDermitt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 033B N47 E38 21DAA 1 Fort McDermitt WellNitrate · 3.4 mi
- Chevron #9-6196-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- U-GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- 033B N47 E38 17DAA 1Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 033B N47 E38 05AACD1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- Ideal MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- McDermitt Combined SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- JACA TRUCK LINES INCBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- McDermitt Motel & Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MCDERMITT MINESuperfund · 4.6 mi
- McDermitt MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- 033B N48 E38 32DB 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort McDermitt'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 Fort McDermitt.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Fort McDermitt
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort McDermitt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort McDermitt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort McDermitt, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fort McDermitt — Mining (17 sites) and Nitrate (12 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Fort McDermitt
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 Fort McDermitt average
Your land is one point inside Fort McDermitt
Everything above resolves to Fort McDermitt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Fort McDermitt Average
Fort McDermitt Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fort McDermitt
- ●One soil character for all of Fort McDermitt
- ●Frost dates read at Fort McDermitt's scale: May 20 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort McDermitt's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort McDermitt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort McDermitt, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort McDermitt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort McDermitt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort McDermitt average
How we know this about Fort McDermitt
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 Fort McDermitt’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 Fort McDermitt
When does frost risk typically end in Fort McDermitt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort McDermitt typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Fort McDermitt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort McDermitt typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort McDermitt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort McDermitt sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 15, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort McDermitt?
The federal record around Fort McDermitt runs heavier than most — 38 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (17), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.4 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 Fort McDermitt?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort McDermitt 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 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fort McDermitt's scale — its 6a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort McDermitt'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 Fort McDermitt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort McDermitt's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,501 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort McDermitt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort McDermitt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 29 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort McDermitt, the closest Nitrate record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort McDermitt's boundary and the 11,501 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort McDermitt sits in the Northern Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort McDermitt's 11,501 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Humboldt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Humboldt 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 Humboldt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort McDermitt's 11,501 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort McDermitt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,501 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.4 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 Fort McDermitt-wide figureread your own land →
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