Scio, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Scio, 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 Scio 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 Scio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Scio — the short answer
Scio, Oregon: USDA zone 8b, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 282 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Linn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Linn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- Linn County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 282 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Linn County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Scio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Scio's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Scio
Each reading below is measured for Scio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsScio runs about 258 days between hard freezes (read from Linn County, the closest normal to Scio) — 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
MeasuredScio sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Scio is in
Scio sits in the Willamette Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at Scio's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Linn County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Scio
Every plant below cleared Scio's own zone 8b and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Scio?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Scio
Survey cells within 31 miles of Scio checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 482 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Scio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Scio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTY ROAD R/WUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CLEVENGER'S AUTOMOTIVE AND TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- SCIO AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 10S/02W-24AACNitrate · 1.3 mi
- BRADLEY BUS COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MEEKER FERTILIZER CO.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LOWERS, JOHN T.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 10S/01W-16ADANitrate · 2.3 mi
- LINN COUNTY ROAD DEPT - SCIO FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- VAN LEEUWEN FARMS INCCAFO · 3.7 mi
- J & K FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- MILLER FORESTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Scio'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 Scio.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Scio
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Scio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Scio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Scio, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Scio — CAFO (4 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Scio
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 Scio average
Your land is one point inside Scio
Everything above resolves to Scio as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 282 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Linn County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Scio Average
Scio Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Scio
- ●One soil character for all of Scio
- ●Frost dates read at Scio's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Scio's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Scio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Scio, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Scio averages can't show:
We read public map data around Scio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Scio average
How we know this about Scio
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 Linn County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Scio
When does frost risk typically end in Scio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Scio typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Scio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Scio typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Scio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Scio sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 9, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Scio?
The federal record around Scio shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 I protect my plants from frost in Scio?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Scio's scale — its 8b band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Scio'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 Scio’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Scio's own scale — the 282 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Scio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Scio, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Scio's boundary and the 282 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Scio sits in the Willamette Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Scio checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Scio has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Linn County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Scio's 282 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Scio's 282 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Scio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 282 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 Scio-wide figureread your own land →