Sunriver, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sunriver, 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 Sunriver 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 Sunriver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunriver — the short answer
Sunriver, Oregon: USDA zone 6a, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- 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
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Sunriver's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunriver's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunriver
Each reading below is measured for Sunriver itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunriver runs about 141 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
MeasuredSunriver 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 Sunriver is in
Sunriver sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Sunriver's own centroid rather than borrowed from Deschutes County.
What Grows in Sunriver
Every plant below cleared Sunriver's own zone 6a and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunriver?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (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 Sunriver
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunriver. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19S/11E-32CCA1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 20S/11E-06DAA1Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- VENTURE LANE SHELL #236Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BEND PARKWAY-E CORNER OF HILLS-DESCHUTESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUNRIVER CHEVRON AND SUNRIVER AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- USWEST - SPRING RIVER CDO - 010477Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- USDA BEND DIST., SNOW CREEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SUNRIVER MARKET PLACEBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SUNRIVER MARKETPLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- DEQ245, Sunriver Utilities #9 57850 W. CascadeNitrate · 1.5 mi
- DEQ244, Sunriver Utilities Golf Course, #2/N 57850 W. CascadeNitrate · 1.7 mi
- DEQ224, 17191 Spring River RoadNitrate · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunriver'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 Sunriver.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunriver
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunriver
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunriver, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of Sunriver. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sunriver
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 Sunriver average
Your land is one point inside Sunriver
Everything above resolves to Sunriver as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Sunriver Average
Sunriver Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sunriver
- ●One soil character for all of Sunriver
- ●Frost dates read at Sunriver's scale: May 16 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunriver's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunriver
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunriver, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunriver averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunriver — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunriver average
How we know this about Sunriver
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 Sunriver’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 Sunriver
When does frost risk typically end in Sunriver?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunriver typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Sunriver?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunriver 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 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunriver?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunriver sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 20, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunriver?
The federal record around Sunriver shows 144 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (128), the nearest Nitrate 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 Sunriver?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Sunriver 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 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Sunriver's scale — its 6a band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunriver'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 Sunriver’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunriver's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,663 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunriver's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunriver's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 4 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunriver, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunriver's boundary and the 5,663 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunriver'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 Sunriver's 5,663 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 Sunriver's 5,663 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunriver you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,663 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Sunriver-wide figureread your own land →