Hood River, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hood River, 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 Hood River 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 Hood River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hood River — the short answer
Hood River, Oregon: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 8a is Hood River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hood River's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hood River
Each reading below is measured for Hood River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHood River runs about 259 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 sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 is in
Hood River sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hood River's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hood River County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hood River
Every plant below cleared Hood River's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hood River?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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 Hood River
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hood River checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 551 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hood River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hood River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLAIR-JO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HOOD RIVER BOTTLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- OR STATE HWY 1-2C HOOD RIVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PROVIDENCE HOOD RIVER HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MT DEFIANCE MICROWAVE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WYETH - 010309Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HOOD RIVER SAND GRAVEL & READY MIX INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- AT&T - HOOD RIVER TD-2Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- VIENTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CHEVRON USA INC #97042Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SAFEWAY STORE NO 1123Brownfields · 2200 ft
- CASCADE COMMONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hood River'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.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Hood River
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hood River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hood River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hood River, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hood River — Superfund (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (130 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hood River
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 average
Your land is one point inside Hood River
Everything above resolves to Hood River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Hood River Average
Hood River Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hood River
- ●One soil character for all of Hood River
- ●Frost dates read at Hood River's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hood River's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hood River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hood River, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hood River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hood River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hood River average
How we know this about Hood River
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 Hood River’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 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 Hood River
When does frost risk typically end in Hood River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hood River typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Hood River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hood River typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hood River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hood River sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 4, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hood River?
The federal record around Hood River is a meaningful one — 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hood River?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hood River's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hood River'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 Hood River’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Hood River's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,676 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hood River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hood River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 4 and Nov 18 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hood River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hood River's boundary and the 1,676 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hood River sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hood River checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hood River's 1,676 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hood River County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hood River 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 Hood River County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hood River's 1,676 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hood River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,676 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Hood River-wide figureread your own land →