What Grows in Bonadelle Ranchos, California

USDA Zones 9b · 6K acres

Bonadelle Ranchos, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.

Expect tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.

Score your parcel · free

Even in Bonadelle Ranchos, 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 Bonadelle Ranchos 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 Bonadelle Ranchos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

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Bonadelle Ranchos — the short answer

Bonadelle Ranchos, California: USDA zone 9b, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.

USDA zone
9b
USDA PHZM 2023
Last hard freeze (28°F)
Feb 5
Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
First hard freeze (28°F)
Dec 6
Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
Days between freezes
~304
Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
Town area
6K 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 Madera County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.

Hardiness Zone Range

9b9b
3a (Cold)13b (Hot)

Zone 9b is Bonadelle Ranchos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bonadelle Ranchos's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.

Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.

What this means for growing in Bonadelle Ranchos

Each reading below is measured for Bonadelle Ranchos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.

Season length

From county records

Bonadelle Ranchos runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Madera County, the closest normal to Bonadelle Ranchos) — 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

Measured

Bonadelle Ranchos 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 Bonadelle Ranchos is in

Bonadelle Ranchos sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Bonadelle Ranchos's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.

What that means for soil

Is it too late to plant in Bonadelle Ranchos?

Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Bonadelle Ranchos

Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bonadelle Ranchos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.

  1. 011S019E15L001MNitrate · 1900 ft
  2. INDEPENDENCE ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
  3. 011S019E15D001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
  4. CAL VALLEY CONSTRUCTION INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
  5. 011S019E10N001MNitrate · 1.0 mi
  6. BOWMAN CONCRETE PUMPING INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
  7. BAKMAN WATER-ROLLING HILLSPFAS · 1.4 mi
  8. 011S019E10J001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
  9. PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1.9 mi
  10. PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
  11. JJ MOBILE REPAIRSBrownfields · 2.3 mi
  12. LOPEZ, SALVADOBrownfields · 2.3 mi

6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map

Measured from Bonadelle Ranchos'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 Bonadelle Ranchos.

Total Sites

486

within ~10 miles of Bonadelle Ranchos

Risk Level

Elevated

Highest-severity

2 Superfund sites

Severity Distribution

within ~10 miles of Bonadelle Ranchos

High2Moderate150Low334

Highest-Severity Sites

010s017e36g001m
Nitrate Monitoring · Well
010s017e36g001m
Nitrate Monitoring · Well
010s018e10g001m
Nitrate Monitoring · Well
010s018e10g001m
Nitrate Monitoring · Well
010s018e15r001m
Nitrate Monitoring · Well

A note from Gnorman

What an experienced grower watches for around here

In and around Bonadelle Ranchos, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bonadelle Ranchos — Brownfields (331 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.

Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.

PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.

Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.

Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.

Free Report

Check your specific parcel in Bonadelle Ranchos

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 Bonadelle Ranchos average

Your land is one point inside Bonadelle Ranchos

Everything above resolves to Bonadelle Ranchos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madera 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 Bonadelle Ranchos Average

Bonadelle Ranchos Average

  • USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bonadelle Ranchos
  • One soil character for all of Bonadelle Ranchos
  • Frost dates read at Bonadelle Ranchos's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6

YOUR Parcel

  • Your exact zone, not Bonadelle Ranchos's 9b
  • Your SSURGO soil type & pH
  • Your sun exposure, cast in 3D

See MY Growing Report

Free Report

Read your specific parcel in Bonadelle Ranchos

Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bonadelle Ranchos, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.

Three things about your lot that Bonadelle Ranchos averages can't show:

Your soil pHYour frost-free days — Bonadelle Ranchos averages 304Your sun & shade

We read public map data around Bonadelle Ranchos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.

25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bonadelle Ranchos average

How we know this about Bonadelle Ranchos

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 Madera 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 Bonadelle Ranchos

When does frost risk typically end in Bonadelle Ranchos?

The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bonadelle Ranchos typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.

When is the first frost in Bonadelle Ranchos?

The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bonadelle Ranchos typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.

How long is the growing season in Bonadelle Ranchos?

Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bonadelle Ranchos sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.

Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bonadelle Ranchos?

The federal record around Bonadelle Ranchos is a meaningful one — 486 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (331), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Bonadelle Ranchos?

From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.

Everything above is measured at Bonadelle Ranchos's scale — its 9b band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bonadelle Ranchos'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 Bonadelle Ranchos’s own scale

4 of the readings below were taken at Bonadelle Ranchos's own scale — the 5,768 acres it covers and 486 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.

Measured here

  • Bonadelle Ranchos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
  • 486 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bonadelle Ranchos, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
  • Bonadelle Ranchos's boundary and the 5,768 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
  • Bonadelle Ranchos 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 — Bonadelle Ranchos has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madera County
  • Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bonadelle Ranchos's 5,768 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
  • The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
  • Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County

What this page can’t tell you

  • The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bonadelle Ranchos's 5,768 acreswhy one lot differs from the next
  • Which side of Bonadelle Ranchos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,768 acresreading your own microclimate
  • How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Bonadelle Ranchos-wide figureread your own land
The next step finer is your own address