Prineville, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prineville, 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 Prineville 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 Prineville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prineville — the short answer
Prineville, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 142 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~142
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 8K 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 6b is Prineville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prineville's 142-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prineville
Each reading below is measured for Prineville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrineville runs about 142 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
MeasuredPrineville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Prineville is in
Prineville sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Prineville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crook County.
What Grows in Prineville
Every plant below cleared Prineville's own zone 6b and its 142-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prineville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Prineville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prineville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LEATHERS OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LES SCHWAB WAREHOUSE CENTER INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ARROW RENTALS & SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- UNOCAL 5359Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TRUAX CORPORATION #75Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PRINEVILLE 76 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- LES SCHWAB WAREHOUSE CENTER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- QWEST CORPORATION dba CENTURYLINK (R0023Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PRINEVILLE CHEVRON CIRCLE KUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARLSON & MILLER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAVIS, JAMES OUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ROMINE-LOGSDEN PARKING LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prineville'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 Prineville.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Prineville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prineville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prineville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prineville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Prineville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Prineville
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 Prineville average
Your land is one point inside Prineville
Everything above resolves to Prineville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Prineville Average
Prineville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Prineville
- ●One soil character for all of Prineville
- ●Frost dates read at Prineville's scale: May 15 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prineville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prineville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prineville, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prineville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prineville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prineville average
How we know this about Prineville
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 Prineville’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 Prineville
When does frost risk typically end in Prineville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prineville typically lands around May 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 Jun 5.
When is the first frost in Prineville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prineville typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 142 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prineville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prineville sees about 142 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 20, about 107 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prineville?
The federal record around Prineville shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Prineville?
With about 142 frost-free days between hard freezes, Prineville 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 170 to 198 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Prineville's scale — its 6b band and its 142-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prineville'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 Prineville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prineville's own scale — its own ~142-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,211 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prineville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prineville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Oct 4 and the ~142-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prineville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prineville's boundary and the 8,211 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~142-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prineville's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prineville's 8,211 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Crook County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Crook 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 Crook County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prineville's 8,211 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prineville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,211 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Prineville-wide figureread your own land →