Gilchrist, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, blackberry, california poppy, and pumpkin. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gilchrist, 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 Gilchrist 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 Gilchrist — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilchrist — the short answer
Gilchrist, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 115 days between hard freezes, across 243 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~115
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 243 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 6a is Gilchrist's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilchrist's 115-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilchrist
Each reading below is measured for Gilchrist itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilchrist runs about 115 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGilchrist sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Gilchrist is in
Gilchrist sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Gilchrist's own centroid rather than borrowed from Klamath County.
What Grows in Gilchrist
Every plant below cleared Gilchrist's own zone 6a and its 115-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilchrist?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Gilchrist
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilchrist. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GILCHRIST FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- INTERFOR GILCHRIST DIVISIONBrownfields · 800 ft
- INTERFOR GILCHRIST DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- GILCHRIST SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WALKER RANGE FIRE PATROL ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CRESCENT CFNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CRESCENT TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- USDA USFS R06 CRESCENT RANGER STATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WAKEFIELD PROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AT&T - CRESCENT BUTTE TD-3Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- GILCHRIST EL/JR/HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- CRESCENT RANGER DISTRICT COMPOUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilchrist'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 Gilchrist.
Total Sites
14
within ~10 miles of Gilchrist
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilchrist
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilchrist
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Gilchrist
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 Gilchrist average
Your land is one point inside Gilchrist
Everything above resolves to Gilchrist as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 243 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 Gilchrist Average
Gilchrist Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Gilchrist
- ●One soil character for all of Gilchrist
- ●Frost dates read at Gilchrist's scale: May 24 to Sep 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilchrist's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilchrist
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilchrist, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilchrist averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilchrist — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilchrist average
How we know this about Gilchrist
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 Gilchrist’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 Gilchrist
When does frost risk typically end in Gilchrist?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilchrist typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Gilchrist?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilchrist typically arrives around Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 2, so the watching starts about Aug 17 — about 115 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilchrist?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilchrist sees about 115 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 2, about 80 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilchrist?
The federal record around Gilchrist is a meaningful one — 14 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 gardeners stretch the season in Gilchrist?
With about 115 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gilchrist rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 143 to 171 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Gilchrist's scale — its 6a band and its 115-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilchrist'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 Gilchrist’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gilchrist's own scale — its own ~115-day season between 28°F freezes, the 243 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilchrist's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilchrist's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Sep 16 and the ~115-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilchrist, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilchrist's boundary and the 243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~115-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gilchrist's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gilchrist's 243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Klamath County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Klamath 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 Klamath County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gilchrist's 243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilchrist you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Gilchrist-wide figureread your own land →
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