Rush Valley, Utah, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Rush Valley, 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 Rush Valley 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 Rush Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rush Valley — the short answer
Rush Valley, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 Rush Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rush Valley's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rush Valley
Each reading below is measured for Rush Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRush Valley runs about 165 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRush Valley 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 Rush Valley is in
Rush Valley sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rush Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tooele County.
What Grows in Rush Valley
Every plant below cleared Rush Valley's own zone 6a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rush Valley?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Rush Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rush Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- (C- 5- 5)32dbb- 2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- (C- 5- 5)17aad- 1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- (C- 5- 5) 8dab- 1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- (C- 5- 6)12aba- 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- (C- 5- 5)15aad- 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- PENNEY SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- (C- 5- 5) 5aab- 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- (C- 5- 5) 3bcc- 1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- (C- 4- 5)33cca- 1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- (C- 6- 6)11ccc- 1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- (C- 5- 5)11bba- 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- (C- 5- 5) 2bcc- 2Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rush Valley'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 Rush Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rush Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rush Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rush Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rush Valley — Mining (90 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rush Valley
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 Rush Valley average
Your land is one point inside Rush Valley
Everything above resolves to Rush Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Rush Valley Average
Rush Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Rush Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Rush Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Rush Valley's scale: May 2 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rush Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rush Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rush Valley, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rush Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rush Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rush Valley average
How we know this about Rush Valley
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 Rush Valley’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 Rush Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Rush Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Valley typically lands around May 2, 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 May 23.
When is the first frost in Rush Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rush Valley typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rush Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rush Valley sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 30, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rush Valley?
The federal record around Rush Valley runs heavier than most — 146 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (90), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rush Valley?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rush Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rush Valley'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 Rush Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rush Valley's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,571 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rush Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rush Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 14 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rush Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rush Valley's boundary and the 11,571 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rush Valley's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rush Valley's 11,571 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tooele County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tooele County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Tooele County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rush Valley's 11,571 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rush Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,571 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Rush Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahRush Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides