Orovada, 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 Orovada, 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 Orovada 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 Orovada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orovada — the short answer
Orovada, Nevada: USDA zone 6a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 14K 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 Orovada's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orovada's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orovada
Each reading below is measured for Orovada itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrovada runs about 146 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
MeasuredOrovada 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 Orovada is in
Orovada sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Orovada's own centroid rather than borrowed from Humboldt County.
What Grows in Orovada
Every plant below cleared Orovada's own zone 6a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orovada?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Orovada
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orovada. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 033A N43 E37 34CC 1Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Hillyard FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 033A N42 E37 10CD 1Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 033A N42 E37 17AD 1Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Orovada General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 033A N42 E37 20BBBB1 NV Dept of Agrcltr Well 1Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 033A N42 E37 20BDAD1 NV Dept of Agrcltr Well 2Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 033A N42 E37 20CAAD1 NV Dept of Agrcltr Well 3Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Liberty Loan ClaimMining · 3.4 mi
- 033A N43 E37 17DA 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- Northern ClaimMining · 5.4 mi
- 033A N43 E37 06DA 1Nitrate · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orovada'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 Orovada.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orovada
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orovada
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orovada, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orovada — Mining (9 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). 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.
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 Orovada
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 Orovada average
Your land is one point inside Orovada
Everything above resolves to Orovada as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Orovada Average
Orovada Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Orovada
- ●One soil character for all of Orovada
- ●Frost dates read at Orovada's scale: May 8 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orovada's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orovada
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orovada, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orovada averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orovada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orovada average
How we know this about Orovada
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 Orovada’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 Orovada
When does frost risk typically end in Orovada?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orovada typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Orovada?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orovada typically arrives around Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 17, so the watching starts about Sep 1 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orovada?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orovada sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 17, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orovada?
The federal record around Orovada is a meaningful one — 34 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Orovada?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Orovada 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 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Orovada's scale — its 6a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orovada'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 Orovada’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Orovada's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,194 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orovada's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orovada's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 1 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orovada, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orovada's boundary and the 14,194 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orovada'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 Orovada's 14,194 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 Orovada's 14,194 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orovada you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,194 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Orovada-wide figureread your own land →