Vale, Oregon, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vale, 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 Vale 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 Vale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vale — the short answer
Vale, Oregon: USDA zone 7a, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 750 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 750 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 7a is Vale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vale's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vale
Each reading below is measured for Vale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVale runs about 202 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
MeasuredVale sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Vale is in
Vale sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Vale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Malheur County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vale
Every plant below cleared Vale's own zone 7a and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Oregon profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Vale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRICE-LESS GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DENTINGERS FEED & SEED CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- BATES, STEVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- UNION PACIFIC RR - VALE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VALE OREGON IRRIGATION DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FARMERS SUPPLY CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GOODMAN OIL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- City of Vale at RR Tracks (MAL126)Nitrate · 1200 ft
- US DEPT OF INTERIOR - BLMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FLICKS & JAVAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GOLDEN WHEEL MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT VALEBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vale'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 Vale.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Vale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vale — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (24 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Vale
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 Vale average
Your land is one point inside Vale
Everything above resolves to Vale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 750 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 Vale Average
Vale Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Vale
- ●One soil character for all of Vale
- ●Frost dates read at Vale's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vale's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vale, Oregon — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vale average
How we know this about Vale
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 Vale’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 Vale
When does frost risk typically end in Vale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vale typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Vale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vale typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vale sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 12, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vale?
The federal record around Vale is a meaningful one — 62 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), 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 Vale?
From about Sep 26 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 Oct 26 (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 Oct 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vale's scale — its 7a band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vale'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 Vale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vale's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 750 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 26 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vale, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vale's boundary and the 750 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vale sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vale's 750 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Malheur County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Malheur 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 Malheur County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vale's 750 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 750 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 Vale-wide figureread your own land →