Ritzville, Washington, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ritzville, 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 Ritzville 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 Ritzville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ritzville — the short answer
Ritzville, Washington: USDA zone 6b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6b is Ritzville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ritzville's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ritzville
Each reading below is measured for Ritzville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRitzville runs about 180 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
MeasuredRitzville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ritzville is in
Ritzville sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ritzville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Ritzville
Every plant below cleared Ritzville's own zone 6b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Washington profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ritzville?
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 Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Ritzville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ritzville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OESTREICH ROBERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ADAMS COUNTY MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NORMAN H RAMBOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RITZVILLE WAREHOUSE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BILL STEPHENS TIRE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WA DOT RITZVILLE MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- B & B FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CONSOLIDATED GRANGE SUPPLY COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WHEATLAND EQUIPMENT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RITZVILLE SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LANDCRAFT REPAIR & RESEARCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CIRCLE K 6041Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ritzville'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 Ritzville.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Ritzville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ritzville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ritzville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ritzville, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Ritzville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ritzville
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 Ritzville average
Your land is one point inside Ritzville
Everything above resolves to Ritzville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ritzville Average
Ritzville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ritzville
- ●One soil character for all of Ritzville
- ●Frost dates read at Ritzville's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ritzville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ritzville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ritzville, Washington — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ritzville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ritzville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ritzville average
How we know this about Ritzville
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 Ritzville’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 Ritzville
When does frost risk typically end in Ritzville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ritzville typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Ritzville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ritzville typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ritzville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ritzville sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 7, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ritzville?
The federal record around Ritzville is a meaningful one — 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ritzville?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ritzville's scale — its 6b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ritzville'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 Ritzville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ritzville's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,412 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ritzville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ritzville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 21 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ritzville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ritzville's boundary and the 1,412 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ritzville's own centroid, the Columbia PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ritzville's 1,412 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ritzville's 1,412 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ritzville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,412 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ritzville-wide figureread your own land →
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