Cassel, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cassel, 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 Cassel 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 Cassel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cassel — the short answer
Cassel, California: USDA zone 7b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7b is Cassel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cassel's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cassel
Each reading below is measured for Cassel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCassel runs about 161 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCassel sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Cassel is in
Cassel sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Cassel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shasta County.
What Grows in Cassel
Every plant below cleared Cassel's own zone 7b and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cassel?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Cassel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cassel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOYD TRUCKING COBrownfields · 2600 ft
- 035N004E06J001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- CALIFORNIA DFW, CRYSTAL LAKE HATCHERYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PACKWAY MATERIALS, INC.Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- TUBIT ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- Rocky Ledge Food & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- NORCAL FOREST RESOURCES INCBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- BURNEY FUEL INC DBA ROCKY LEDGE FOOD & GASBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- SNOW MOUNTAIN HYDROBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- INTER MOUNTAIN BODYWORKSBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- H&R LOGGING INCBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- 035N003E03L001MNitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cassel'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 Cassel.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Cassel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cassel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cassel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cassel, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Cassel. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Cassel
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 Cassel average
Your land is one point inside Cassel
Everything above resolves to Cassel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Cassel Average
Cassel Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cassel
- ●One soil character for all of Cassel
- ●Frost dates read at Cassel's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cassel's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cassel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cassel, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cassel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cassel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cassel average
How we know this about Cassel
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 Cassel’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 Cassel
When does frost risk typically end in Cassel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cassel typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Cassel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cassel typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cassel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cassel sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 22, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cassel?
The federal record around Cassel shows 88 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (67), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cassel?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cassel's scale — its 7b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cassel'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 Cassel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cassel's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,297 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cassel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cassel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 6 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cassel, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cassel's boundary and the 1,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cassel's own centroid, the CascadesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cassel's 1,297 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cassel's 1,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cassel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,297 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Cassel-wide figureread your own land →
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