Prineville Lake Acres, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prineville Lake Acres, 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 Lake Acres 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 Lake Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prineville Lake Acres — the short answer
Prineville Lake Acres, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- 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
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Prineville Lake Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prineville Lake Acres's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prineville Lake Acres
Each reading below is measured for Prineville Lake Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrineville Lake Acres runs about 170 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
MeasuredPrineville Lake Acres 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 Prineville Lake Acres is in
Prineville Lake Acres sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Prineville Lake Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Crook County.
What Grows in Prineville Lake Acres
Every plant below cleared Prineville Lake Acres's own zone 7a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prineville Lake Acres?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (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 Prineville Lake Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prineville Lake Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JUNIPER CANYON ROCK QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- RICHI'S PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Ideal ProspectMining · 7.6 mi
- IdealMining · 7.6 mi
- Joe DandyMining · 8.2 mi
- PRINEVILLE MYSTERY SPILLSuperfund · 8.3 mi
- Oronogo MineMining · 8.3 mi
- CENTRAL OREGON PROCESSING, LLCBrownfields · 8.4 mi
- OronogoMining · 8.5 mi
- ST. CHARLES PRINEVILLEBrownfields · 9.2 mi
- MILL POWER INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 9.3 mi
- OCHOCO MANUFACTURING CORPBrownfields · 9.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prineville Lake Acres'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 Lake Acres.
Total Sites
46
within ~10 miles of Prineville Lake Acres
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prineville Lake Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prineville Lake Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prineville Lake Acres, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Prineville Lake Acres — Mining (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (31 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Prineville Lake Acres
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 Lake Acres average
Your land is one point inside Prineville Lake Acres
Everything above resolves to Prineville Lake Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 town 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 Lake Acres Average
Prineville Lake Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Prineville Lake Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Prineville Lake Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Prineville Lake Acres's scale: May 3 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prineville Lake Acres's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prineville Lake Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prineville Lake Acres, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prineville Lake Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prineville Lake Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prineville Lake Acres average
How we know this about Prineville Lake Acres
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Prineville Lake Acres’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Lake Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Prineville Lake Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prineville Lake Acres typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Prineville Lake Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prineville Lake Acres 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 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prineville Lake Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prineville Lake Acres sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 6, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prineville Lake Acres?
The federal record around Prineville Lake Acres is a meaningful one — 46 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (31), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Prineville Lake Acres?
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 Prineville Lake Acres's scale — its 7a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prineville Lake Acres'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 Lake Acres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Prineville Lake Acres's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,219 acres it covers and 46 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prineville Lake Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prineville Lake Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 20 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 46 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prineville Lake Acres, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prineville Lake Acres's boundary and the 4,219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prineville Lake Acres's own centroid, the Blue MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Prineville Lake Acres's 4,219 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 Lake Acres's 4,219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prineville Lake Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,219 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Lake Acres-wide figureread your own land →
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