Pahrump, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pahrump, 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 Pahrump 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 Pahrump — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pahrump — the short answer
Pahrump, Nevada: USDA zone 8b, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 210K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 210K 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 8b is Pahrump's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pahrump's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pahrump
Each reading below is measured for Pahrump itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPahrump runs about 268 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPahrump sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pahrump is in
Pahrump sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pahrump's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Nye County is mostly Central Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pahrump
Every plant below cleared Pahrump's own zone 8b and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pahrump?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Pahrump
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pahrump. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Nye County Maintenance YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE #3322Brownfields · 550 ft
- NYE COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICESBrownfields · 950 ft
- Rebel Store #2178Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5175Brownfields · 2100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #8789Brownfields · 2200 ft
- ALBERTSONS #6041Brownfields · 2600 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5101Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- 162 S20 E53 02CC 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Smiths Fuel Center #341Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- TIRE WORKS TOTAL CAR CARE #2015Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- Pahrump C D OUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pahrump'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 Pahrump.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Pahrump
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pahrump
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pahrump
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pahrump, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pahrump — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (94 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pahrump
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 Pahrump average
Your land is one point inside Pahrump
Everything above resolves to Pahrump as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 210K 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 Pahrump Average
Pahrump Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pahrump
- ●One soil character for all of Pahrump
- ●Frost dates read at Pahrump's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pahrump's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pahrump
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pahrump, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pahrump averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pahrump — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pahrump average
How we know this about Pahrump
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 Pahrump’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 Pahrump
When does frost risk typically end in Pahrump?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pahrump typically lands around Feb 21, 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 Mar 14.
When is the first frost in Pahrump?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pahrump typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pahrump?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pahrump sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 2, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pahrump?
The federal record around Pahrump is a meaningful one — 155 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Pahrump?
From about Oct 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 Nov 16 (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 Nov 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pahrump's scale — its 8b band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pahrump'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 Pahrump’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pahrump's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 210,433 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pahrump's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pahrump's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 21 and Nov 16 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pahrump, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pahrump's boundary and the 210,433 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pahrump sits in the Mojave 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 Pahrump's 210,433 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nye County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nye 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 Nye County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pahrump's 210,433 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pahrump you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 210,433 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pahrump-wide figureread your own land →