Mosier, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mosier, 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 Mosier 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 Mosier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mosier — the short answer
Mosier, Oregon: USDA zone 8a, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 292 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 292 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 Mosier's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mosier's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mosier
Each reading below is measured for Mosier itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMosier runs about 232 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
MeasuredMosier 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 Mosier is in
Mosier sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mosier's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wasco County is mostly Columbia Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mosier
Every plant below cleared Mosier's own zone 8a and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mosier?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Mosier
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mosier checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 550 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mosier
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mosier. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOSIER MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RR - MOSIER SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WASCO COUNTY RD. DEPT.(MOSIER DISTRICT)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- INSITU BINGEN POINTBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- BINGEN CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- UNDERWOOD FRUIT & WAREHOUSE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- UNOCAL BULK PLANT 0046Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- FRANCIS GADDIS & DON KRENZUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- COLUMBIA RIVER LOG SERVICESWUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- WILSON OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- HUNSAKER OIL COMPANY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- 03N/11E-21E01 PAS19Nitrate · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mosier'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 Mosier.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Mosier
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mosier
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mosier
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mosier, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 136 sites within ~10 miles of Mosier. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Mosier
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 Mosier average
Your land is one point inside Mosier
Everything above resolves to Mosier as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 292 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 Mosier Average
Mosier Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mosier
- ●One soil character for all of Mosier
- ●Frost dates read at Mosier's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mosier's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mosier
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mosier, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mosier averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mosier — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mosier average
How we know this about Mosier
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 Mosier’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 Mosier
When does frost risk typically end in Mosier?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mosier typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Mosier?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mosier typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mosier?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mosier sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 19, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mosier?
The federal record around Mosier is a meaningful one — 183 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (136), 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 Mosier?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mosier's scale — its 8a band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mosier'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 Mosier’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mosier's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 292 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mosier's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mosier's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 2 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mosier, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mosier's boundary and the 292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mosier sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mosier 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 Mosier's 292 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wasco County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wasco 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 Wasco County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mosier's 292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mosier you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 292 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 Mosier-wide figureread your own land →