Almanor, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Almanor, 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 Almanor 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 Almanor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Almanor — the short answer
Almanor, California: USDA zone 7a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 565 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 565 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 7a is Almanor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Almanor's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Almanor
Each reading below is measured for Almanor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlmanor runs about 177 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
MeasuredAlmanor 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 Almanor is in
Almanor sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Almanor's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Plumas County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Almanor
Every plant below cleared Almanor's own zone 7a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Almanor?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Almanor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Almanor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 027N007E11D001MNitrate · 1500 ft
- WEST ALMANOR COMMUNITY CLUBBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- 028N007E33F001MNitrate · 2.5 mi
- PENINSULA FIRE DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- LAKE ALMANOR COUNTRY CLUB INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- ALMANOR DRY DOCKBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- Lake Almanor StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- PG&E ALMANOR SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- CALTRANS 02-4H1404Brownfields · 5.7 mi
- CAL TRANS CHESTER MAINT STNBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- CALTRANS D2 MAINTENANCE CHESTER MSBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- Little FieldMining · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Almanor'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 Almanor.
Total Sites
61
within ~10 miles of Almanor
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Almanor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Almanor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Almanor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Almanor — Mining (9 sites) and Brownfields (34 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Almanor
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 Almanor average
Your land is one point inside Almanor
Everything above resolves to Almanor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 565 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 Almanor Average
Almanor Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Almanor
- ●One soil character for all of Almanor
- ●Frost dates read at Almanor's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Almanor's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Almanor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Almanor, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Almanor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Almanor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Almanor average
How we know this about Almanor
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 Almanor’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 Almanor
When does frost risk typically end in Almanor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Almanor typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Almanor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Almanor typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Almanor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Almanor sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Oct 9, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Almanor?
The federal record around Almanor shows 61 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (34), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Almanor?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Almanor's scale — its 7a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Almanor'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 Almanor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Almanor's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 565 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Almanor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Almanor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 23 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Almanor, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Almanor's boundary and the 565 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Almanor sits in the Cascades — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Almanor's 565 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas County
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Almanor's 565 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Almanor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 565 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Almanor-wide figureread your own land →