Alpaugh, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alpaugh, 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 Alpaugh 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 Alpaugh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alpaugh — the short answer
Alpaugh, California: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 268 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 268 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Tulare County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Alpaugh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alpaugh's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alpaugh
Each reading below is measured for Alpaugh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlpaugh runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Tulare County, the closest normal to Alpaugh) — 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
MeasuredAlpaugh sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Alpaugh is in
Alpaugh sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Alpaugh's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tulare County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alpaugh
Every plant below cleared Alpaugh's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alpaugh?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Alpaugh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alpaugh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 023S023E33A001MNitrate · 700 ft
- COUNTY OF TULAREBrownfields · 750 ft
- EXPRESS GAS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SOUTHERN COUNTIES OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 950 ft
- ALPAUGH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- ALPAUGH COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- WESTERN FARM SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 023S023E34N002MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- 024S023E03C001MNitrate · 1.0 mi
- FIELD'S CUSTOM HAYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alpaugh'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 Alpaugh.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Alpaugh
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alpaugh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alpaugh
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alpaugh, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Alpaugh. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Alpaugh
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 Alpaugh average
Your land is one point inside Alpaugh
Everything above resolves to Alpaugh as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 268 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tulare County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Alpaugh Average
Alpaugh Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Alpaugh
- ●One soil character for all of Alpaugh
- ●Frost dates read at Alpaugh's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alpaugh's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alpaugh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alpaugh, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alpaugh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alpaugh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alpaugh average
How we know this about Alpaugh
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 Tulare County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Alpaugh
When does frost risk typically end in Alpaugh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alpaugh typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Alpaugh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alpaugh typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alpaugh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alpaugh sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 26, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alpaugh?
The federal record around Alpaugh shows 166 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (134), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Alpaugh?
From about Nov 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 Dec 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 Dec 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alpaugh's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alpaugh'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 Alpaugh’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alpaugh's own scale — the 268 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alpaugh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alpaugh, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alpaugh's boundary and the 268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alpaugh sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alpaugh has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tulare County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alpaugh's 268 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tulare County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tulare 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 Tulare County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alpaugh's 268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alpaugh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 268 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Alpaugh-wide figureread your own land →
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