Tonopah, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tonopah, 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 Tonopah 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 Tonopah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tonopah — the short answer
Tonopah, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 7a is Tonopah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tonopah's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tonopah
Each reading below is measured for Tonopah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTonopah runs about 183 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
MeasuredTonopah sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Tonopah is in
Tonopah sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tonopah's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nye County.
What Grows in Tonopah
Every plant below cleared Tonopah's own zone 7a and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tonopah?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Tonopah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tonopah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tonopah DistrictMining · 1600 ft
- MizpahMining · 0.6 mi
- Tonopah Mining Co.Mining · 0.8 mi
- Desert Queen ShaftMining · 0.8 mi
- Tonopah Belmont Development Co.Mining · 0.8 mi
- Robertsons Service #80Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Peterson Copper MineMining · 0.9 mi
- North Star Tun. and Dev. Co.Mining · 0.9 mi
- Tonopah Bulk Plant #0785Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Unocal Tonopah Bulk Plant #0785Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Lower Dry CottonwoodMining · 0.9 mi
- First Interstate BankUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tonopah'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 Tonopah.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Tonopah
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tonopah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tonopah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tonopah, Mining runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Tonopah. 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 Tonopah
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 Tonopah average
Your land is one point inside Tonopah
Everything above resolves to Tonopah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Tonopah Average
Tonopah Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tonopah
- ●One soil character for all of Tonopah
- ●Frost dates read at Tonopah's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tonopah's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tonopah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tonopah, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tonopah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tonopah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tonopah average
How we know this about Tonopah
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 Tonopah’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 Tonopah
When does frost risk typically end in Tonopah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tonopah typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Tonopah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tonopah typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tonopah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tonopah sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 10, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tonopah?
The federal record around Tonopah runs heavier than most — 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 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 Tonopah?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tonopah's scale — its 7a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tonopah'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 Tonopah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tonopah's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,926 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tonopah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tonopah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 24 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tonopah, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tonopah's boundary and the 5,926 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tonopah'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 Tonopah's 5,926 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 Tonopah's 5,926 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tonopah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,926 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.3 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 Tonopah-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaTonopah sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides