The Truckee Meadows / Reno spans USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The high-desert valley where Reno and Sparks sit in the Sierra Nevada's rain shadow — alkaline, irrigation-dependent ground and a short zone-7a season of about 150 frost-free days, with killing frost holding into mid-May. Among the crops suited to this profile: tomato, grape, pomegranate, and sagebrush. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
The Truckee Meadows / Reno spans Nevada.
Your yard isn't all of the Truckee Meadows / Reno.
The Truckee Meadows / Reno spans USDA zones 7a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Truckee Meadows / Reno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Truckee Meadows / Reno — the short answer
The Truckee Meadows / Reno: USDA zones 7a, 146–171 frost-free days, in Nevada.
- USDA zones
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 146–171 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 3
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Truckee Meadows / Reno
Plants matched to the Truckee Meadows / Reno's USDA zones 7a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Truckee Meadows / Reno
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Truckee Meadows / Reno’s USDA zones 7a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Truckee Meadows / Reno
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across three member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Aridisols, at 41% of mapped acres, followed by Mollisols (40%), Entisols (14%) and Vertisols (2%). Seven soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Devada, Theon, and Reywat.
81% of those acres are well drained, and another 7% somewhat excessively drained, 3% somewhat poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 6.7–7.9 between the lowest and the highest county on record.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
6.7–7.9
Hydric soils
1%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Washoe County holds the most wetland ground here, at 1% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Truckee Meadows / Reno
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Truckee Meadows / Reno. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records81% of the mapped acres across the Truckee Meadows / Reno are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all three of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Truckee Meadows / Reno runs pH 6.7–7.9 — near neutral in two of its three counties.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Truckee Meadows / Reno — and how to grow with it.
Across the Truckee Meadows / Reno's 3 counties the federal record holds 2,958 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (1,118), Brownfields (741) and Nitrate (586). The heaviest single county is Washoe County, with 2,262.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Truckee Meadows / Reno to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 3 counties in the Truckee Meadows / Reno
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Truckee Meadows / Reno, Mining runs higher than the national average — 353 sites across the 3 counties in the Truckee Meadows / Reno. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Truckee Meadows / Reno
Everything above resolves to the Truckee Meadows / Reno as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Truckee Meadows / Reno Average
Truckee Meadows / Reno Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Truckee Meadows / Reno
- ●One soil character for all of Truckee Meadows / Reno
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Truckee Meadows / Reno's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Truckee Meadows / Reno
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Truckee Meadows / Reno — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Truckee Meadows / Reno averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Truckee Meadows / Reno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Truckee Meadows / Reno average
How we know this about the Truckee Meadows / Reno
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Truckee Meadows / Reno
What hardiness zone is the Truckee Meadows / Reno?
The Truckee Meadows / Reno spans USDA hardiness zones 7a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Truckee Meadows / Reno?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Truckee Meadows / Reno's counties mostly run 158 to 171 frost-free days, median 170 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 3 member counties). That 13-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 3 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Truckee Meadows / Reno?
Across the Truckee Meadows / Reno, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between May 2 and May 13 (median May 5), and their first fall freeze between Oct 15 and Oct 19. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about May 26, and elevation decides which end of a 11-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Truckee Meadows / Reno?
The Truckee Meadows / Reno's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Grape, Pomegranate, Sagebrush, Pinon Pine. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Truckee Meadows / Reno defined?
The Truckee Meadows / Reno is defined here as a curated cluster of 3 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Truckee Meadows / Reno cover?
The Truckee Meadows / Reno spans Nevada. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Mojave Desert, Humboldt River Corridor, Northeastern Nevada High Desert (Elko / Ruby Valley / Ely), Carson Valley, Lahontan Valley / Fallon, and Pahrump Valley share at least one state with the Truckee Meadows / Reno. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Truckee Meadows / Reno’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Truckee Meadows / Reno's own scale — the zone 7a band across its footprint, a median 170-day season across its 3 counties and 2,958 documented federal contamination records across its 3 counties, 2,262 of them in Washoe County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7a aggregated across all 3 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 3 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 3 counties run 158 to 171 frost-free days, median 170NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 2,958 documented federal contamination records across its 3 counties, 2,262 of them in Washoe County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 41% Aridisols, topsoil pH 6.7–7.9, area-weighted across its 3 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7afrom Nevada
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 13-day range your ground sits at — 158 days at one extreme, 171 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Truckee Meadows / Reno
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Nevada
A hot, low desert of creosote flats and Joshua trees where growing means irrigation, heat-loving crops, and shade — pomegranates, dates, and desert-adapted beds.
Northern Nevada's warm irrigated middle ground: the Humboldt River's zone 6b towns — Winnemucca, Lovelock, and Battle Mountain — run a longer, milder season than the 5a high desert around Elko yet stay cooler than the western valleys, with roughly 160–175 frost-free days behind the famed Lovelock cantaloupe.
The coldest, highest, shortest-season corner of Nevada. Where Reno gardens run zone 7a and Las Vegas 9a, Elko sits at zone 5a with roughly 110 frost-free days and the White Pine uplands around Ely at 6a with about 136 — a full two-plus zones colder and 100-plus fewer growing days than anywhere else on the state's pages. Growing here means a cold-hardy, short-season palette raced against a window that opens in late May and closes by mid-September.
Nevada's oldest farm valley — Carson River bottomland under the Sierra front where cold-air drainage keeps frost in play into June: a 6b-7b floor with a 147-164-day window, distinct from both Tahoe above and the desert basins east.
The Newlands Project's century-old irrigated oasis — Fallon's Hearts O' Gold cantaloupe ground, a zone-7a valley floor with a documented 179-day season in a county whose average runs 40 days shorter.
A warm desert basin over the hill from Death Valley — the committed record reads 8b with a 268-288-day season, two zones warmer and more than four months longer than the county row averaged across Nye's cold central-Nevada ranges; Nevada's unlikely vineyard-and-orchard pocket.