Barstow, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Barstow, 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 Barstow 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 Barstow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Barstow — the short answer
Barstow, California: USDA zone 9a, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 26K 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 San Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Barstow's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Barstow's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Barstow
Each reading below is measured for Barstow itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBarstow runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Barstow) — 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
MeasuredBarstow 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 Barstow is in
Barstow sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Barstow's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Bernardino County.
What Grows in Barstow
Every plant below cleared Barstow's own zone 9a and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Barstow?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Barstow
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Barstow. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BARSTOW CORP YARDBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SAN BERNARDINO COUNTYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CA DEPT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS DBA BARSTOW VETERANS HOMEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- ILEAN WALLACEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- WESLEY JAMESBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #12942Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- BARSTOW COMM COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CALNEV PIPE LINE LLC BNSF STATIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #1096Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- HOME DEPOT #6972Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #1096Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Barstow'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 Barstow.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Barstow
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Barstow
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Barstow, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 866 sites within ~10 miles of Barstow. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Barstow
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 Barstow average
Your land is one point inside Barstow
Everything above resolves to Barstow as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 26K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Barstow Average
Barstow Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Barstow
- ●One soil character for all of Barstow
- ●Frost dates read at Barstow's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Barstow's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Barstow
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Barstow, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Barstow averages can't show:
We read public map data around Barstow — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Barstow average
How we know this about Barstow
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 San Bernardino 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 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 Barstow
When does frost risk typically end in Barstow?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Barstow typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Barstow?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Barstow typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Barstow?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Barstow sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Barstow?
The federal record around Barstow is a meaningful one — 1,121 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (866), the nearest Brownfields 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 Barstow?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Barstow's scale — its 9a band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Barstow'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 Barstow’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Barstow's own scale — the 26,431 acres it covers and 1,121 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Barstow's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Barstow, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Barstow's boundary and the 26,431 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Barstow's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Barstow has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Barstow's 26,431 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Barstow's 26,431 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Barstow you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,431 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Barstow-wide figureread your own land →
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