Ione, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ione, 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 Ione 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 Ione — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ione — the short answer
Ione, Oregon: USDA zone 7b, about 221 days between hard freezes, across 486 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~221
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 486 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 7b is Ione's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ione's 221-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ione
Each reading below is measured for Ione itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIone runs about 221 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
MeasuredIone 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 Ione is in
Ione sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ione's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morrow County.
What Grows in Ione
Every plant below cleared Ione's own zone 7b and its 221-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ione?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Ione
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ione. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UNION PACIFIC RR - IONE SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HEPPNER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- IONE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- AKERS RENTAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MORROW CO. SCHOOL DISTRICT #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- EKSTROM'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 01S/24E-03CDBNitrate · 2300 ft
- MCELLIGOTT, C RUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GTN PIPELINE COMPRESSOR STATION 9Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- LEXINGTON AIRPORT - MORROW CO DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- GAR AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- LEXINGTON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ione'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 Ione.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ione
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Ione
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 Ione average
Your land is one point inside Ione
Everything above resolves to Ione as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 486 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 Ione Average
Ione Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ione
- ●One soil character for all of Ione
- ●Frost dates read at Ione's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ione's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ione
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ione, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ione averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ione — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ione average
How we know this about Ione
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 Ione’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 Ione
When does frost risk typically end in Ione?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ione typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Ione?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ione typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 221 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ione?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ione sees about 221 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 20, about 186 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ione?
The federal record around Ione is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ione?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ione's scale — its 7b band and its 221-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ione'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 Ione’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ione's own scale — its own ~221-day season between 28°F freezes, the 486 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ione's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ione's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 3 and the ~221-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ione, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ione's boundary and the 486 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~221-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ione's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ione's 486 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morrow County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morrow 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 Morrow County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ione's 486 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ione you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 486 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 Ione-wide figureread your own land →
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