Topaz Lake, Nevada, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Topaz Lake, 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 Topaz Lake 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 Topaz Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Topaz Lake — the short answer
Topaz Lake, Nevada: USDA zone 7a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 794 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 794 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 Topaz Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Topaz Lake's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Topaz Lake
Each reading below is measured for Topaz Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTopaz Lake runs about 160 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
MeasuredTopaz Lake 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 Topaz Lake is in
Topaz Lake sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Topaz Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Topaz Lake
Every plant below cleared Topaz Lake's own zone 7a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Topaz Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Topaz Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Topaz Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 106 N10 E22 29CADA2Nitrate · 550 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CADD1Nitrate · 650 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CADD3Nitrate · 800 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CACA2Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29BDDD1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CDBA1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29BDDC1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CACC1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CACC2Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29CACC3Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29DCCC3Nitrate · 1500 ft
- 106 N10 E22 29BDCD1Nitrate · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Topaz Lake'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 Topaz Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Topaz Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Topaz Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Topaz Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Topaz Lake — Mining (54 sites) and Nitrate (54 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 Topaz Lake
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 Topaz Lake average
Your land is one point inside Topaz Lake
Everything above resolves to Topaz Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 794 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 Topaz Lake Average
Topaz Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Topaz Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Topaz Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Topaz Lake's scale: May 7 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Topaz Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Topaz Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Topaz Lake, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Topaz Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Topaz Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Topaz Lake average
How we know this about Topaz Lake
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 Topaz Lake’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 Topaz Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Topaz Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Topaz Lake typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Topaz Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Topaz Lake typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Topaz Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Topaz Lake sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 30, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Topaz Lake?
The federal record around Topaz Lake runs heavier than most — 119 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Topaz Lake?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Topaz Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Topaz Lake'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 Topaz Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Topaz Lake's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 794 acres it covers and 119 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Topaz Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Topaz Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 14 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 119 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Topaz Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Topaz Lake's boundary and the 794 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Topaz Lake'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 Topaz Lake's 794 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Topaz Lake's 794 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Topaz Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 794 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Topaz Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nevada
Wider growing context
What grows across NevadaTopaz Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Nevada as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides