Corvallis, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Corvallis, 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 Corvallis 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 Corvallis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Corvallis — the short answer
Corvallis, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- Benton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Benton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Corvallis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corvallis's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corvallis
Each reading below is measured for Corvallis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCorvallis runs about 256 days between hard freezes (read from Benton County, the closest normal to Corvallis) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCorvallis sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Corvallis is in
Corvallis sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Corvallis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Corvallis
Every plant below cleared Corvallis's own zone 8b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corvallis?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Corvallis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Corvallis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 474 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Corvallis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corvallis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAMPUS SHELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY - KELLY ENG. CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- COLLEGE CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OR STATE UNIVERSITY, FACILITIES SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FRED MEYER - CORVALLISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FRED MEYER #70-701Brownfields · 2200 ft
- TRUAX CORPORATION CC#21Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- USDA ARS OR CORVALLISBrownfields · 2600 ft
- USDA ARS FL HORTICULTURAL CROPS RES LABBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ODEQ DRY CLEANER FORMER SERRYS DRY CLEANBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- OREGON STATE UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- OREGON STATE UNIVERSITYCAFO · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Corvallis'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 Corvallis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Corvallis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corvallis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Corvallis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Corvallis — Superfund (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (29 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Corvallis
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 Corvallis average
Your land is one point inside Corvallis
Everything above resolves to Corvallis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Benton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Corvallis Average
Corvallis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Corvallis
- ●One soil character for all of Corvallis
- ●Frost dates read at Corvallis's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corvallis's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corvallis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corvallis, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corvallis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corvallis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corvallis average
How we know this about Corvallis
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 Benton County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Corvallis
When does frost risk typically end in Corvallis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corvallis typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Corvallis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corvallis typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corvallis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corvallis sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 5, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corvallis?
The federal record around Corvallis is a meaningful one — 440 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (239), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Corvallis?
From about Oct 20 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 Nov 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 Nov 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corvallis's scale — its 8b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corvallis'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 Corvallis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Corvallis's own scale — the 9,299 acres it covers and 440 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corvallis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 440 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corvallis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corvallis's boundary and the 9,299 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Corvallis's own centroid, the Willamette ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Corvallis checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Corvallis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Benton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Corvallis's 9,299 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corvallis's 9,299 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corvallis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,299 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Corvallis-wide figureread your own land →