Pronghorn, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pronghorn, 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 Pronghorn 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 Pronghorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pronghorn — the short answer
Pronghorn, Oregon: USDA zone 6b, about 140 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- 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 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~140
- 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 6b is Pronghorn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pronghorn's 140-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pronghorn
Each reading below is measured for Pronghorn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPronghorn runs about 140 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
MeasuredPronghorn 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 Pronghorn is in
Pronghorn sits in the Blue Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pronghorn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Deschutes County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pronghorn
Every plant below cleared Pronghorn's own zone 6b and its 140-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pronghorn?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Pronghorn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pronghorn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16S/13E-16ADBNitrate · 0.8 mi
- WILLAMETTE GRAYSTONE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CASCADE MATERIALS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BABLER BROS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GO BIO COBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- 16S/12E-23BAANitrate · 3.6 mi
- 16S/12E-14CDANitrate · 3.6 mi
- FAIRS DIESEL EQUIPMENT REPAIRBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- CAT-PETERSON MACHINERY COBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- WALMART 2243Brownfields · 3.8 mi
- TRUAX CORP #82Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- CARIOCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pronghorn'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 Pronghorn.
Total Sites
270
within ~10 miles of Pronghorn
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
22 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pronghorn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pronghorn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pronghorn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Pronghorn. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pronghorn
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 Pronghorn average
Your land is one point inside Pronghorn
Everything above resolves to Pronghorn 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 Pronghorn Average
Pronghorn Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Pronghorn
- ●One soil character for all of Pronghorn
- ●Frost dates read at Pronghorn's scale: May 15 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pronghorn's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pronghorn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pronghorn, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pronghorn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pronghorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pronghorn average
How we know this about Pronghorn
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 Pronghorn’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 Pronghorn
When does frost risk typically end in Pronghorn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pronghorn 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 Pronghorn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pronghorn typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 140 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pronghorn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pronghorn sees about 140 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 18, about 105 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pronghorn?
The federal record around Pronghorn is a meaningful one — 270 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 gardeners stretch the season in Pronghorn?
With about 140 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pronghorn 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 168 to 196 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 Pronghorn's scale — its 6b band and its 140-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pronghorn'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 Pronghorn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pronghorn's own scale — its own ~140-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,214 acres it covers and 270 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pronghorn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pronghorn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Oct 2 and the ~140-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 270 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pronghorn, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pronghorn's boundary and the 4,214 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~140-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pronghorn sits in the Blue Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pronghorn's 4,214 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Deschutes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Deschutes 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 Deschutes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pronghorn's 4,214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pronghorn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,214 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Pronghorn-wide figureread your own land →
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