North Sultan, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Sultan, 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 North Sultan 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 North Sultan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Sultan — the short answer
North Sultan, Washington: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 360 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 360 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 8b is North Sultan's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Sultan's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Sultan
Each reading below is measured for North Sultan itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Sultan runs about 274 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNorth Sultan sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 North Sultan is in
North Sultan sits in the Puget Lowland — EPA Level III, inside the wider Marine West Coast Forest. That is read at North Sultan's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Snohomish County is mostly North Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in North Sultan
Every plant below cleared North Sultan's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Sultan?
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 Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near North Sultan
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Sultan. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNOHOMISH COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 28N/08E-30C01Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 28N/08E-29B01Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MIDDLE SCHOOL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SKY VALLEY AUTOMOTIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PETROCARD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 28N/08E-28C01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SULTAN HARDWARE & BUILDING SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HOOT OWL CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SULTAN AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SULTAN TOWN OFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SULTAN CENTRAL OFFICE 2180-B02Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Sultan'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 North Sultan.
Total Sites
280
within ~10 miles of North Sultan
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Sultan
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Sultan
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Sultan, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Sultan — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (138 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in North Sultan
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 North Sultan average
Your land is one point inside North Sultan
Everything above resolves to North Sultan as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 360 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 North Sultan Average
North Sultan Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across North Sultan
- ●One soil character for all of North Sultan
- ●Frost dates read at North Sultan's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Sultan's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Sultan
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Sultan, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Sultan averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Sultan — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Sultan average
How we know this about North Sultan
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 North Sultan’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 North Sultan
When does frost risk typically end in North Sultan?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Sultan typically lands around Feb 23, 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 Mar 16.
When is the first frost in North Sultan?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Sultan typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Sultan?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Sultan sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 10, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Sultan?
The federal record around North Sultan is a meaningful one — 280 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (138), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 North Sultan?
From about Oct 25 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 Nov 24 (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 Nov 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Sultan's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Sultan'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 North Sultan’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Sultan's own scale — its own ~274-day season between 28°F freezes, the 360 acres it covers and 280 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Sultan's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Sultan's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Nov 24 and the ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 280 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Sultan, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Sultan's boundary and the 360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- North Sultan sits in the Puget Lowland — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Sultan's 360 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Snohomish County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Snohomish County
- The growing challenges every Washington grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Washington
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Snohomish County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Sultan's 360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Sultan you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 360 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 North Sultan-wide figureread your own land →
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