Hood River County, in Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Hood River County lies within the Hood River Valley and the Columbia Gorge — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hood River County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hood River 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 Hood River County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hood River County — the short answer
Hood River County, Oregon: USDA zone 7b, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 334K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 334K 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 7b is Hood River County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hood River County's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Hood River County
Across a year, Hood River County accumulates about 1,230 growing degree days above 50°F, about 622 fewer than the middle Oregon county — ahead of 4 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 Hood River County
Across Hood River County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Yallani, Bins, and Oak Grove are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
15%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hood River County
The USDA soil survey maps 91% of Hood River County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 5% somewhat poorly drained.
Yallani is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Bins (11%) and Oak Grove (10%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Hood River County
Each reading below is measured for Hood River County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Hood River County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Hood River County runs about pH 6.1–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHood River County runs about 212 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredHood River County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hood River County is in
Hood River County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Cascades (73%) and Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills (27%). 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 Hood River County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hood River County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 212-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 Hood River County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Hood River County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hood River County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 537 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly14 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hood River County
USGS estimates 28,956 lb of Simazine on Hood River County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (17,630 lb) and Diuron (15,609 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 Hood River County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hood River County — 146 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hood River County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hood River County
Closest first, across Hood River County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARKDALE RFPDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PARKDALE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- UPPER VALLEY AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- MIDDLE FORK IRRIGATION DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- US FS PARKDALE WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- JIM'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- DEE RFPDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- MT HOOD MOTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- MT HOOD COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MT HOOD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ZEMAN, LOUIS SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hood River 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 Hood River County.
Total Sites
146
across Hood River County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hood River County
Severity Distribution
across Hood River County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hood River County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 114 sites across Hood River County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hood River 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 Hood River County average
Your land is one point inside Hood River County
Everything above resolves to Hood River County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 334K 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 Hood River County Average
Hood River County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hood River County
- ●One soil character for all of Hood River County
- ●Frost dates read at Hood River County's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hood River County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hood River County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hood River County, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hood River County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hood River County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hood River County average
How we know this about Hood River 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 Hood River County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hood River County
When does frost risk typically end in Hood River County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hood River County typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
How long is the growing season in Hood River County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hood River County sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 27, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hood River County?
The federal record around Hood River County is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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.
Everything above is measured at Hood River County's scale — its 7b band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hood River 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 Hood River County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hood River County's own scale — its own ~212-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 146 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hood River County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hood River County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hood River CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 146 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hood River County's boundary and the 334,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hood River County spans, Cascades the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hood River County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hood River County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Oregon grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Oregon
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Hood River County — the ~212 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 Hood River County's 334,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 146 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 Hood River Countyread your own land →