Chalfant, 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.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Chalfant, 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 Chalfant 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 Chalfant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chalfant — the short answer
Chalfant, California: USDA zone 7b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 Chalfant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chalfant's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chalfant
Each reading below is measured for Chalfant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChalfant runs about 198 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
MeasuredChalfant 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 Chalfant is in
Chalfant sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Chalfant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Chalfant
Every plant below cleared Chalfant's own zone 7b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chalfant?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Chalfant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chalfant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BISHOP, CITY OFPFAS · 0 ft
- 005S033E22N001MNitrate · 2.5 mi
- 005S033E08J001MNitrate · 2.7 mi
- CurtinMining · 2.9 mi
- Twenty Grand MineMining · 3.2 mi
- CHALFANT TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- Twenty GrandMining · 4.1 mi
- KeystoneMining · 4.6 mi
- Moon Group Area ProspectsMining · 4.6 mi
- Sacramento Canyon Area ProspectsMining · 4.7 mi
- MontecitoMining · 4.7 mi
- Saratoga, Lexington, RangerMining · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chalfant'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 Chalfant.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Chalfant
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chalfant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chalfant
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chalfant, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chalfant — Mining (33 sites) and Brownfields (71 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Chalfant
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 Chalfant average
Your land is one point inside Chalfant
Everything above resolves to Chalfant as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Chalfant Average
Chalfant Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Chalfant
- ●One soil character for all of Chalfant
- ●Frost dates read at Chalfant's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chalfant's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chalfant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chalfant, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chalfant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chalfant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chalfant average
How we know this about Chalfant
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 Chalfant’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 Chalfant
When does frost risk typically end in Chalfant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chalfant typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Chalfant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chalfant typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chalfant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chalfant sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chalfant?
The federal record around Chalfant is a meaningful one — 141 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (71), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Chalfant?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chalfant's scale — its 7b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chalfant'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 Chalfant’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chalfant's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,944 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chalfant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chalfant's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chalfant, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chalfant's boundary and the 17,944 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chalfant's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chalfant's 17,944 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chalfant's 17,944 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chalfant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,944 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Chalfant-wide figureread your own land →