Calipatria, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Calipatria, 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 Calipatria 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 Calipatria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Calipatria — the short answer
Calipatria, California: USDA zone 9b, about 344 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 25
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~344
- Imperial County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Imperial County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Calipatria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Calipatria's 344-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Calipatria
Each reading below is measured for Calipatria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCalipatria runs about 344 days between hard freezes (read from Imperial County, the closest normal to Calipatria) — 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
MeasuredCalipatria 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 Calipatria is in
Calipatria sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Calipatria's own centroid rather than borrowed from Imperial County.
What Grows in Calipatria
Every plant below cleared Calipatria's own zone 9b and its 344-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Calipatria?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 25 — 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 Calipatria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Calipatria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CDCR-Calipatria State PrisonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CALIPATRIA STATE PRISONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- EARTHRISE NUTRITIONALS LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CALIPATRIA STATE PRISONPFAS · 1.7 mi
- CALIPATRIA LLCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- ALDAHRA FARMS USA LLCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ROSAS & SONSBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- FONDOMONTE CA LLCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- DUNE CO OF IMPERIALBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- GOLDEN EAGLE HAY COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- LAYAYE FARMSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- CITIZENS IMPERIAL SOLARBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Calipatria'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 Calipatria.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Calipatria
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Calipatria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Calipatria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Calipatria, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Calipatria. 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 Calipatria
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 Calipatria average
Your land is one point inside Calipatria
Everything above resolves to Calipatria as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Imperial 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 Calipatria Average
Calipatria Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Calipatria
- ●One soil character for all of Calipatria
- ●Frost dates read at Calipatria's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Calipatria's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Calipatria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Calipatria, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Calipatria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Calipatria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Calipatria average
How we know this about Calipatria
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 Imperial 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 Calipatria
When does frost risk typically end in Calipatria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Calipatria typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Calipatria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Calipatria typically arrives around Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 11, so the watching starts about Nov 25 — about 344 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Calipatria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Calipatria sees about 344 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Dec 11, about 309 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Calipatria?
The federal record around Calipatria is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Calipatria?
From about Nov 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Calipatria's scale — its 9b band and its 344-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Calipatria'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 Calipatria’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Calipatria's own scale — the 2,385 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Calipatria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Calipatria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Calipatria's boundary and the 2,385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~344-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Calipatria's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Calipatria has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Imperial County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Calipatria's 2,385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Imperial County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Imperial 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 Imperial County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Calipatria's 2,385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Calipatria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Calipatria-wide figureread your own land →