California Pines, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in California Pines, 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 California Pines 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 California Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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California Pines — the short answer
California Pines, California: USDA zone 6b, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 6b is California Pines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against California Pines's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in California Pines
Each reading below is measured for California Pines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCalifornia Pines runs about 145 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCalifornia Pines sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 California Pines is in
California Pines sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at California Pines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Modoc County.
What Grows in California Pines
Every plant below cleared California Pines's own zone 6b and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in California Pines?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near California Pines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of California Pines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 041N011E02N001MNitrate · 0.5 mi
- MODOC COUNTY-DEPT. PUB. WORKSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DSLR LLC DBA SX LOWRY RANCHBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- MODOC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #170 ALTURASBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- 043N011E35F001MNitrate · 7.6 mi
- DOHS-MODOC COBrownfields · 7.6 mi
- K&K DISTRIBUTINGBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- NORTH STATE GROCERY INC DBA HOLIDAY MARKETBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- USDA USFS R05 ALTURAS CABrownfields · 7.8 mi
- CITY OF ALTURAS PUBLIC WORKS SHOPBrownfields · 7.9 mi
- COMPLETELY CUSTOM INCBrownfields · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from California Pines'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 California Pines.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of California Pines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of California Pines
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around California Pines, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of California Pines. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in California Pines
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 California Pines average
Your land is one point inside California Pines
Everything above resolves to California Pines as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 California Pines Average
California Pines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across California Pines
- ●One soil character for all of California Pines
- ●Frost dates read at California Pines's scale: May 10 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not California Pines's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in California Pines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in California Pines, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that California Pines averages can't show:
We read public map data around California Pines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the California Pines average
How we know this about California Pines
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 California Pines’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 California Pines
When does frost risk typically end in California Pines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in California Pines typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in California Pines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in California Pines typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in California Pines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, California Pines sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 18, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in California Pines?
The federal record around California Pines is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (29), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in California Pines?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, California Pines rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at California Pines's scale — its 6b band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of California Pines'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 California Pines’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at California Pines's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,753 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- California Pines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- California Pines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 2 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near California Pines, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- California Pines's boundary and the 4,753 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at California Pines's own centroid, the Eastern Cascades Slopes and FoothillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so California Pines's 4,753 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Modoc County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Modoc 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 Modoc County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among California Pines's 4,753 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of California Pines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,753 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 California Pines-wide figureread your own land →
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