Crook County, in Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Crook County lies within the Central Oregon (High Desert) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Crook County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Crook County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Crook County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crook County — the short answer
Crook County, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 1.9M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.9M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Crook County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crook County's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Crook County
Across a year, Crook County accumulates about 1,375 growing degree days above 50°F, about 477 fewer than the middle Oregon county — ahead of 11 of Oregon’s 36 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Crook County
Detailed USDA soil-survey (SSURGO) mapping is limited across Crook County, so there isn't a reliable county-wide soil summary to show here yet — a gap in the national survey, not in the ground itself.
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crook County
Each reading below is measured for Crook County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrook County runs about 154 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
MeasuredCrook County 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 Crook County is in
Crook County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Blue Mountains (94%) and Northern Basin and Range (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Crook County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Crook County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 154-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile.
Is it too late to plant in Crook County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Crook County
- monarch butterfly32 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Crook County
USGS estimates 2,516 lb of Glyphosate on Crook County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Chlorpyrifos (1,077 lb) and Triclopyr (1,038 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Crook County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Crook County — 204 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Crook County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Crook County
Closest first, across Crook County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Eickemeyer ProspectMining · 4.7 mi
- TownerMining · 4.8 mi
- Lost CinnabarMining · 4.9 mi
- Maury Mountain MinesMining · 5.0 mi
- Maury Mountains MineMining · 5.0 mi
- CinnabarMining · 5.3 mi
- USDA FS OCHOCO NF: CHAMPION MINESuperfund · 7.2 mi
- Gray Prairie ProspectMining · 7.3 mi
- Gray PrairieMining · 7.3 mi
- PRINEVILLE, CITY OFPFAS · 7.5 mi
- MooreMining · 9.3 mi
- Moore ProspectMining · 9.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crook County'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 Crook County.
Sources Checked
across Crook County
Severity Distribution
across Crook County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crook County, two things run higher than the national average across Crook County — Mining (100 sites) and Superfund (8 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.
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 Crook County
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 Crook County average
Your land is one point inside Crook County
Everything above resolves to Crook County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.9M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Crook County Average
Crook County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Crook County
- ●One soil character for all of Crook County
- ●Frost dates read at Crook County's scale: May 10 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crook County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Crook County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crook County, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crook County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crook County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crook County average
How we know this about Crook County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Crook County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Crook County
When does frost risk typically end in Crook County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crook County typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
How long is the growing season in Crook County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crook County sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 27, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crook County?
The federal record around Crook County runs heavier than most — 204 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (100), the nearest Mining record about 4.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Crook County's scale — its 6b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crook County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Oregon's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Crook County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Crook County's own scale — its own ~154-day span between 28°F freezes and 204 documented sites inside its boundary; 2 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crook County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crook County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 204 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 4.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Crook County's boundary and the 1,906,515 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Crook County spans, Blue Mountains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Crook County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Crook County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Crook County — the ~154 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crook County's 1,906,515 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 204 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Crook Countyread your own land →