Estacada, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — 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 artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Estacada, 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 Estacada 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 Estacada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Estacada — the short answer
Estacada, Oregon: USDA zone 9a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Clackamas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Clackamas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Estacada's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Estacada's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Estacada
Each reading below is measured for Estacada itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEstacada runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Clackamas County, the closest normal to Estacada) — 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
MeasuredEstacada sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Estacada is in
Estacada sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Estacada's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Clackamas County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Estacada
Every plant below cleared Estacada's own zone 9a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Estacada?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Estacada
Survey cells within 31 miles of Estacada checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 522 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Estacada
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Estacada. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ESTACADA SCHOOL DISTRICT #108Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- ESTACADA HIGH SCHOOL AUTO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RAMBO-HAYDEN FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ESTACADA SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LEATHERS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OR STATE HWY 1-2C ESTACADAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- USFS TIMBER LAKE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CAZADEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- OR STATE HWY DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AT&T - HIGHLAND BUTTE MWUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAZY BEND C & M WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ESTACADA LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Estacada'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 Estacada.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Estacada
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Estacada
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Estacada
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Estacada, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 126 sites within ~10 miles of Estacada. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Estacada
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 Estacada average
Your land is one point inside Estacada
Everything above resolves to Estacada as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clackamas 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 Estacada Average
Estacada Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Estacada
- ●One soil character for all of Estacada
- ●Frost dates read at Estacada's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Estacada's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Estacada
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Estacada, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Estacada averages can't show:
We read public map data around Estacada — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Estacada average
How we know this about Estacada
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 Clackamas 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 Estacada
When does frost risk typically end in Estacada?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Estacada typically lands around Mar 25, 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 Apr 15.
When is the first frost in Estacada?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Estacada typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Estacada?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Estacada sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Nov 8, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Estacada?
The federal record around Estacada is a meaningful one — 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (126), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Estacada?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Estacada's scale — its 9a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Estacada'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 Estacada’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Estacada's own scale — the 1,697 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Estacada's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Estacada, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Estacada's boundary and the 1,697 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Estacada sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Estacada checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Estacada has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clackamas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Estacada's 1,697 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clackamas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clackamas 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 Clackamas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Estacada's 1,697 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Estacada you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,697 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Estacada-wide figureread your own land →