Salina, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Salina, 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 Salina 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 Salina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Salina — the short answer
Salina, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Salina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salina's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salina
Each reading below is measured for Salina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalina runs about 163 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
MeasuredSalina 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 Salina is in
Salina sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Salina's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sevier County is mostly Wasatch and Uinta Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Salina
Every plant below cleared Salina's own zone 6a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Salina?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Salina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZRHFBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FEDEX GROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KEN BETTRIDGE DISTRIBUTING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PEPSI COLA OF SALINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WHEELER MACHINERY CO.Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- R&K GAS AND GOODIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SALINA EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WHEELER MACHINERY COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SALINA TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCENIC QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LOVE'S TRAVEL STOP #581Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EXPRESS FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salina'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 Salina.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Salina
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Salina — CAFO (5 sites) and Mining (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Salina
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 Salina average
Your land is one point inside Salina
Everything above resolves to Salina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Salina Average
Salina Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Salina
- ●One soil character for all of Salina
- ●Frost dates read at Salina's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salina's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salina, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salina average
How we know this about Salina
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 Salina’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 Salina
When does frost risk typically end in Salina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salina typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Salina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salina typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salina sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 26, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salina?
The federal record around Salina is a meaningful one — 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Salina?
From about Sep 10 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 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 Oct 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salina's scale — its 6a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salina'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 Salina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Salina's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,759 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 10 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salina, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salina's boundary and the 3,759 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Salina sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Salina's 3,759 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sevier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sevier 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 Sevier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Salina's 3,759 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,759 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Salina-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahSalina sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides