Chelan County, in Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Chelan County lies within the Wenatchee Valley and the Pacific Northwest — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Chelan County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Chelan County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Chelan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chelan County — the short answer
Chelan County, Washington: USDA zone 7a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 1.9M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.9M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Chelan County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chelan County's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Chelan County
Across a year, Chelan County accumulates about 788 growing degree days above 50°F, about 925 fewer than the middle Washington county — ahead of 2 of Washington’s 39 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Chelan County
Across Chelan County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Entiat, Nard, and Fears are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a unweathered bedrock surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.1–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Chelan County
The USDA soil survey maps 81% of Chelan County as well drained — but another 6% drains differently: 3% moderately well drained, 2% excessively drained.
Entiat is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Nard (5%) and Fears (3%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Chelan County
Each reading below is measured for Chelan County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Chelan County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
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
MeasuredTopsoil across Chelan County runs about pH 6.1–7.0, close to neutral.
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
Season length
MeasuredChelan County runs about 158 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
MeasuredChelan County 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 Chelan County is in
Chelan County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Cascades (89%) and Columbia Plateau (10%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Chelan County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Chelan County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 158-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile.
Is it too late to plant in Chelan County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What gets applied to farmland in Chelan County
USGS estimates 19,578 lb of Chlorpyrifos on Chelan County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Simazine (13,562 lb) and Glyphosate (9,949 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Chelan County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Chelan County — 594 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Chelan County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Chelan County
Closest first, across Chelan County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 27N/17E-28L01Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- LAKE WENATCHEE CENTRAL OFFICE 4820-B0Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Lake Wenatchee VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- HEADWATERS INN/SPORTSMANS PUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- 27N/17E-33A01Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- LAKE WENATCHEE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- JUST PLAIN GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- STELIKO WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- NAUMES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- CHELAN COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- LAKE WENATCHEE MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- COLE'S CORNER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chelan County'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 Chelan County.
Sources Checked
across Chelan County
Severity Distribution
across Chelan County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chelan County, two things run higher than the national average across Chelan County — Mining (186 sites) and PFAS (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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Chelan County
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 Chelan County average
Your land is one point inside Chelan County
Everything above resolves to Chelan County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.9M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Chelan County Average
Chelan County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Chelan County
- ●One soil character for all of Chelan County
- ●Frost dates read at Chelan County's scale: May 12 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chelan County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Chelan County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chelan County, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chelan County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chelan County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chelan County average
How we know this about Chelan County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Chelan County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Chelan County
When does frost risk typically end in Chelan County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chelan County typically lands around May 12, 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 Jun 2.
How long is the growing season in Chelan County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chelan County sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Oct 3, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chelan County?
The federal record around Chelan County runs heavier than most — 594 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Chelan County's scale — its 7a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chelan County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Washington's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Chelan County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Chelan County's own scale — its own ~158-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 594 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chelan County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chelan County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Chelan CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 594 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 4.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Chelan County's boundary and the 1,869,552 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Chelan County spans, North Cascades the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Chelan County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Chelan County — the ~158 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chelan County's 1,869,552 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 594 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Chelan Countyread your own land →