Cayuse, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cayuse, 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 Cayuse 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 Cayuse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cayuse — the short answer
Cayuse, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Cayuse's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cayuse's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cayuse
Each reading below is measured for Cayuse itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCayuse runs about 186 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
MeasuredCayuse 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 Cayuse is in
Cayuse sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cayuse's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in Cayuse
Every plant below cleared Cayuse's own zone 7a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cayuse?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Cayuse
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cayuse. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02N/34E-04DDA3Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 02.00N/34.00E-11CAD01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- TUBBS RANCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- USDA ARS OR COLUMBIA PLATEAU CONSERVATION RESEARCH CENTERBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- OSU CBARC PENDLETONBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 03.00N/33.00E-24DCD01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 02N/33E-14DACNitrate · 4.0 mi
- 02N/35E-06ACA4Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- B L DAVIS RANCH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- AGRI CHEMICALUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 02N/33E-10DAD1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cayuse'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 Cayuse.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Cayuse
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cayuse
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cayuse
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cayuse, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Cayuse. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cayuse
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 Cayuse average
Your land is one point inside Cayuse
Everything above resolves to Cayuse as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Cayuse Average
Cayuse Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cayuse
- ●One soil character for all of Cayuse
- ●Frost dates read at Cayuse's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cayuse's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cayuse
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cayuse, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cayuse averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cayuse — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cayuse average
How we know this about Cayuse
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 Cayuse’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 Cayuse
When does frost risk typically end in Cayuse?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cayuse typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Cayuse?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cayuse typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cayuse?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cayuse sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cayuse?
The federal record around Cayuse is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cayuse?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cayuse's scale — its 7a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cayuse'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 Cayuse’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cayuse's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,844 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cayuse's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cayuse's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cayuse, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cayuse's boundary and the 1,844 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cayuse's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cayuse's 1,844 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Umatilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Umatilla County
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Umatilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cayuse's 1,844 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cayuse you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,844 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Cayuse-wide figureread your own land →