Pilot Rock, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pilot Rock, 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 Pilot Rock 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 Pilot Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pilot Rock — the short answer
Pilot Rock, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 945 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 945 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 7a is Pilot Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pilot Rock's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pilot Rock
Each reading below is measured for Pilot Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPilot Rock runs about 192 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPilot Rock sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Pilot Rock is in
Pilot Rock sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pilot Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in Pilot Rock
Every plant below cleared Pilot Rock's own zone 7a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pilot Rock?
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 Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Pilot Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pilot Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOISE CASCADE KINZUA LUMBERToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- BOISE CASCADE KINZUA LUMBERBrownfields · 1200 ft
- MOUNTAIN WEST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- LOUISIANA-PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ROY, DONALD CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- J & D'S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROBERT BOPP - PILOT ROCK CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- E.W. PERRINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- PILOT ROCK CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- MENTZER & ELLIOTT KEYLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- UNION PACIFIC RR - PILOT ROCK SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 01S/32E-17ACDNitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pilot Rock'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 Pilot Rock.
Total Sites
26
within ~10 miles of Pilot Rock
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pilot Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pilot Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pilot Rock, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Pilot Rock. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pilot Rock
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 Pilot Rock average
Your land is one point inside Pilot Rock
Everything above resolves to Pilot Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 945 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 Pilot Rock Average
Pilot Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pilot Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Pilot Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Pilot Rock's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pilot Rock's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pilot Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pilot Rock, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pilot Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pilot Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pilot Rock average
How we know this about Pilot Rock
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 Pilot Rock’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 Pilot Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Pilot Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Rock typically lands around Apr 11, 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 May 2.
When is the first frost in Pilot Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Rock typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pilot Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pilot Rock sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 6, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pilot Rock?
The federal record around Pilot Rock is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Pilot Rock?
From about Sep 20 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 Oct 20 (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 Oct 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pilot Rock's scale — its 7a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pilot Rock'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 Pilot Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pilot Rock's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 945 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pilot Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pilot Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 20 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pilot Rock, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pilot Rock's boundary and the 945 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pilot Rock's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pilot Rock's 945 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Umatilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Umatilla 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 Umatilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pilot Rock's 945 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pilot Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 945 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Pilot Rock-wide figureread your own land →