Sisters, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor pumpkin, blackberry, california poppy, and zucchini, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sisters, 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 Sisters 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 Sisters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sisters — the short answer
Sisters, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 105 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~105
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6a is Sisters's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sisters's 105-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sisters
Each reading below is measured for Sisters itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSisters runs about 105 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
MeasuredSisters sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Sisters is in
Sisters sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Sisters's own centroid rather than borrowed from Deschutes County.
What Grows in Sisters
Every plant below cleared Sisters's own zone 6a and its 105-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sisters?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 12 — 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 Sisters
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sisters. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USDA SISTERS DISTRICT - COMPOUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SISTERS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- SPACE AGE FUEL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- TRUAX CORPORATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- UNOCAL 4223Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CITY OF SISTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 3 SISTERS FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- FORMER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- OR STATE HWY 4-10 SISTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AT&T - HOODOO BUTTE TD-3Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BARCLAY LOGGING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SISTERS SCHOOL DISTRICT #6Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sisters'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 Sisters.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sisters
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sisters
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sisters, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Sisters. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Sisters
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 Sisters average
Your land is one point inside Sisters
Everything above resolves to Sisters as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Sisters Average
Sisters Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sisters
- ●One soil character for all of Sisters
- ●Frost dates read at Sisters's scale: May 30 to Sep 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sisters's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sisters
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sisters, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sisters averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sisters — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sisters average
How we know this about Sisters
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 Sisters’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 Sisters
When does frost risk typically end in Sisters?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sisters typically lands around May 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sisters?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sisters typically arrives around Sep 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 29, so the watching starts about Aug 13 — about 105 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sisters?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sisters sees about 105 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Aug 29, about 70 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sisters?
The federal record around Sisters is light — 39 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Sisters?
With about 105 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sisters 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 133 to 161 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sisters's scale — its 6a band and its 105-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sisters'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 Sisters’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sisters's own scale — its own ~105-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,237 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sisters's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sisters's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 12 and the ~105-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sisters, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sisters's boundary and the 1,237 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~105-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sisters's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sisters's 1,237 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 Sisters's 1,237 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sisters you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,237 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sisters-wide figureread your own land →