Bangor, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bangor, 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 Bangor 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 Bangor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bangor — the short answer
Bangor, California: USDA zone 9b, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Butte County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Butte County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bangor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bangor's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bangor
Each reading below is measured for Bangor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBangor runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Butte County, the closest normal to Bangor) — 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
MeasuredBangor sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Bangor is in
Bangor sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Bangor's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Butte County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bangor
Every plant below cleared Bangor's own zone 9b and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bangor?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Bangor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bangor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BANGOR ROCK LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 018N005E28E002MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- MARTIN WARREN VEHICLE 1FTNX21F9XEE21616Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- BOB SOPER EQUIPMENT REPAIRBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 017N005E16K001MNitrate · 3.1 mi
- 017N005E13D001MNitrate · 3.5 mi
- 017N005E14M001MNitrate · 3.5 mi
- JAMES & PEGGY CRAMERBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 017N005E20A001MNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 017N005E22N001MNitrate · 4.4 mi
- Gold Eagle Market #2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bangor'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 Bangor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bangor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bangor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bangor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bangor — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (84 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bangor
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 Bangor average
Your land is one point inside Bangor
Everything above resolves to Bangor as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butte 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 Bangor Average
Bangor Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bangor
- ●One soil character for all of Bangor
- ●Frost dates read at Bangor's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bangor's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bangor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bangor, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bangor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bangor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bangor average
How we know this about Bangor
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 Butte 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 Bangor
When does frost risk typically end in Bangor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bangor typically lands around Jan 19, 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 Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Bangor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bangor typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bangor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bangor sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 3, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bangor?
The federal record around Bangor shows 136 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (84), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Bangor?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bangor's scale — its 9b band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bangor'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 Bangor’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bangor's own scale — the 8,591 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bangor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bangor, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bangor's boundary and the 8,591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bangor sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bangor has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Butte County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bangor's 8,591 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bangor's 8,591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bangor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,591 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Bangor-wide figureread your own land →
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