Caruthers, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Caruthers, 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 Caruthers 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 Caruthers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caruthers — the short answer
Caruthers, California: USDA zone 9a, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Fresno County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Caruthers's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caruthers's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caruthers
Each reading below is measured for Caruthers itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCaruthers runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from Fresno County, the closest normal to Caruthers) — 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
MeasuredCaruthers 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 Caruthers is in
Caruthers sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Caruthers's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fresno County.
What Grows in Caruthers
Plants matched to Caruthers's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Caruthers?
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 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Caruthers
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caruthers. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARUTHERS HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CARUTHERS UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- GILL'S VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SINGH AUTOMOTIVE DIESELBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CARUTHERS ENGINE PARTSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- EL TORO LOCO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 016S020E18P002MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- COUNTY OF FRESNOBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO (DBA AT&T CA)Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- CARUTHERS PUBLIC WORKS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- D L BRAGABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SUPER MART*Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caruthers'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 Caruthers.
Total Sites
366
within ~10 miles of Caruthers
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Caruthers
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caruthers
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caruthers, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Caruthers — Nitrate (146 sites) and Brownfields (200 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Caruthers
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 Caruthers average
Your land is one point inside Caruthers
Everything above resolves to Caruthers as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fresno 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 Caruthers Average
Caruthers Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Caruthers
- ●One soil character for all of Caruthers
- ●Frost dates read at Caruthers's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caruthers's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caruthers
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caruthers, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caruthers averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caruthers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caruthers average
How we know this about Caruthers
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 Fresno 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 Caruthers
When does frost risk typically end in Caruthers?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caruthers typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Caruthers?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caruthers typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Caruthers?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caruthers sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Nov 27, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Caruthers?
The federal record around Caruthers is a meaningful one — 366 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (200), the nearest Brownfields 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 Caruthers?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Caruthers's scale — its 9a band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caruthers'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 Caruthers’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Caruthers's own scale — the 1,295 acres it covers and 366 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caruthers's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 366 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caruthers, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caruthers's boundary and the 1,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Caruthers's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Caruthers has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fresno County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Caruthers's 1,295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fresno 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 Fresno 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 Fresno County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Caruthers's 1,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caruthers you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,295 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Caruthers-wide figureread your own land →