Umatilla, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Umatilla, 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 Umatilla 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 Umatilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Umatilla — the short answer
Umatilla, Oregon: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 7b is Umatilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Umatilla's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Umatilla
Each reading below is measured for Umatilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUmatilla runs about 242 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredUmatilla sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Umatilla is in
Umatilla sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Umatilla's own centroid rather than borrowed from Umatilla County.
What Grows in Umatilla
Every plant below cleared Umatilla's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Umatilla?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Umatilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Umatilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UMATILLA, CITY OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- WILBUR-ELLIS COUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CORPS OF ENGINEERS, MCNARY PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- FOREST RECOVERY INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BN RR - ATHENA 358Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- UMATILLA SCHOOL DISTRICT 6-RUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GREENWOOD MOTORLINES DBA R&L CARRIERSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ARS FRESNO, LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- UNOCAL 3316Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- REMINGTON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- UMATILLA BONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SIMPLOT GROWER SOLUTIONS UMATILLABrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Umatilla'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 Umatilla.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Umatilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Umatilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Umatilla, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Umatilla — Superfund (5 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Umatilla
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 Umatilla average
Your land is one point inside Umatilla
Everything above resolves to Umatilla as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Umatilla Average
Umatilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Umatilla
- ●One soil character for all of Umatilla
- ●Frost dates read at Umatilla's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Umatilla's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Umatilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Umatilla, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Umatilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Umatilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Umatilla average
How we know this about Umatilla
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 Umatilla’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 Umatilla
When does frost risk typically end in Umatilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Umatilla typically lands around Mar 13, 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 Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Umatilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Umatilla typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Umatilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Umatilla sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 27, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Umatilla?
The federal record around Umatilla is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Umatilla?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Umatilla's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Umatilla'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 Umatilla’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Umatilla's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,247 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Umatilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Umatilla's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 10 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Umatilla, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Umatilla's boundary and the 3,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Umatilla's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Umatilla's 3,247 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Umatilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Umatilla 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 Umatilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Umatilla's 3,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Umatilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,247 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 Umatilla-wide figureread your own land →