Winnemucca, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Winnemucca, 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 Winnemucca 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 Winnemucca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Winnemucca — the short answer
Winnemucca, Nevada: USDA zone 6b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6b is Winnemucca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winnemucca's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Winnemucca
Each reading below is measured for Winnemucca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWinnemucca runs about 161 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
MeasuredWinnemucca 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 Winnemucca is in
Winnemucca sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Winnemucca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Humboldt County.
What Grows in Winnemucca
Every plant below cleared Winnemucca's own zone 6b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nevada profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Winnemucca?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 15 — 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 Winnemucca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Winnemucca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sierra Pacific Power Co-Winnemucca Facility-ClosedUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Winnemucca GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SIERRA PACIFIC POWER COMPANY-WINNEMUCCABrownfields · 850 ft
- Sonoma Heights ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 071 N36 E38 28B 1Nitrate · 1400 ft
- Winnemucca Municipal Golf CourseUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Southern Pacific Transportation CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- T G Sheppard Construction IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Maverik #553Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7586Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Rons Seed & SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Union Pacific Railroad CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winnemucca'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 Winnemucca.
Total Sites
201
within ~10 miles of Winnemucca
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Winnemucca
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Winnemucca
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winnemucca, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Winnemucca — Mining (35 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Winnemucca
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 Winnemucca average
Your land is one point inside Winnemucca
Everything above resolves to Winnemucca 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 city 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 Winnemucca Average
Winnemucca Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Winnemucca
- ●One soil character for all of Winnemucca
- ●Frost dates read at Winnemucca's scale: May 7 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winnemucca's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Winnemucca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winnemucca, Nevada — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winnemucca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winnemucca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winnemucca average
How we know this about Winnemucca
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Winnemucca’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Winnemucca
When does frost risk typically end in Winnemucca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winnemucca 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 Winnemucca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Winnemucca typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Winnemucca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winnemucca sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Oct 1, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winnemucca?
The federal record around Winnemucca runs heavier than most — 201 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Winnemucca?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Winnemucca's scale — its 6b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winnemucca'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 Winnemucca’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Winnemucca's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,255 acres it covers and 201 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winnemucca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winnemucca's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 15 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 201 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Winnemucca, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Winnemucca's boundary and the 6,255 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Winnemucca'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 Winnemucca's 6,255 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Humboldt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Humboldt 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 Humboldt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Winnemucca's 6,255 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Winnemucca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,255 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 Winnemucca-wide figureread your own land →
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