Sun Valley, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sun 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 Sun 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 Sun Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sun Valley — the short answer
Sun Valley, Nevada: USDA zone 7b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 7b is Sun Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sun Valley's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sun Valley
Each reading below is measured for Sun Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSun Valley runs about 188 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
MeasuredSun Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Sun Valley is in
Sun Valley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sun Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Washoe County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sun Valley
Every plant below cleared Sun Valley's own zone 7b and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sun Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sun Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sun Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMOKE CANYON DRIVE MERCURYSuperfund · 1000 ft
- 7-Eleven #16235-CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Bi Rite MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SUN VALLEY GIDPFAS · 0.9 mi
- Sun Valley TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #9838Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- Truckee Meadows Station #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8913Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #14354Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- Sun Valley CDO Parcel 102Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Tholke PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sun 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 Sun Valley.
Total Sites
1,757
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Sun 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 Sun Valley average
Your land is one point inside Sun Valley
Everything above resolves to Sun Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Sun Valley Average
Sun Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sun Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Sun Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Sun Valley's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sun Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sun Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sun Valley, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sun Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sun Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sun Valley average
How we know this about Sun 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 Sun 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 Sun Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Sun Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sun Valley typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Sun Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sun Valley typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sun Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sun Valley sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 14, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sun Valley?
The federal record around Sun Valley runs heavier than most — 1,757 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (837), the nearest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Sun Valley?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sun Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sun 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 Sun Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sun Valley's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,327 acres it covers and 1,757 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sun Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sun Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 28 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,757 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sun Valley, the closest Superfund record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sun Valley's boundary and the 9,327 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sun Valley sits in the Central 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 Sun Valley's 9,327 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washoe 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 Washoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sun Valley's 9,327 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sun 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 9,327 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.2 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 Sun Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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