Smith 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.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Smith 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 Smith 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 Smith Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Smith Valley — the short answer
Smith Valley, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 65K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 65K 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 Smith Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Smith Valley's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Smith Valley
Each reading below is measured for Smith Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSmith Valley runs about 155 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
MeasuredSmith 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 Smith Valley is in
Smith Valley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Smith Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in Smith Valley
Every plant below cleared Smith Valley's own zone 6b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Smith Valley?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Smith Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Smith Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 107 N11 E24 30CBBB1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- RENNER EQUIPT COBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- H E HUNEWILL CONSTRUCTION CO INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Taylor Hill MineMining · 2.0 mi
- Yankee Girl ClaimsMining · 2.0 mi
- NDOT-WellingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Wellington Automotive - ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Smith Valley Rearing Station-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 107 N11 E24 20BCDC1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Smith Valley SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Renner Equip CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Walker River ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Smith 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 Smith Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Smith Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Smith Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Smith Valley, Mining runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Smith 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 Smith 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 Smith Valley average
Your land is one point inside Smith Valley
Everything above resolves to Smith Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 65K 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 Smith Valley Average
Smith Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Smith Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Smith Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Smith Valley's scale: May 9 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Smith Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Smith Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Smith Valley, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Smith Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Smith Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Smith Valley average
How we know this about Smith 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 Smith 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 Smith Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Smith Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Smith Valley typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Smith Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Smith Valley typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Smith Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Smith Valley sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 27, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Smith Valley?
The federal record around Smith Valley runs heavier than most — 52 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (27), 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 Smith Valley?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Smith Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Smith 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 Smith Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Smith Valley's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 65,254 acres it covers and 52 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Smith Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Smith Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 11 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 52 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Smith Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Smith Valley's boundary and the 65,254 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Smith 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 Smith Valley's 65,254 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Smith Valley's 65,254 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Smith 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 65,254 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 Smith Valley-wide figureread your own land →