China Lake Acres, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in China Lake Acres, 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 China Lake Acres 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 China Lake Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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China Lake Acres — the short answer
China Lake Acres, California: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 8b is China Lake Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against China Lake Acres's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in China Lake Acres
Each reading below is measured for China Lake Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChina Lake Acres runs about 281 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredChina Lake Acres sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 China Lake Acres is in
China Lake Acres sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at China Lake Acres's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Kern County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in China Lake Acres
Every plant below cleared China Lake Acres's own zone 8b and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in China Lake Acres?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 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 China Lake Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of China Lake Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIERRA GROUPBrownfields · 2400 ft
- 026S039E27C001MNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Yellow Treasure MineMining · 0.7 mi
- 026S039E26D001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 026S039E27D001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- ADVANCED TRANSMISSIONS & SPECIALIZED AUTOBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CITY BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 026S039E28B002MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 026S039E23E001MNitrate · 1.3 mi
- Buttermilk AcresUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 026S039E26D002MNitrate · 1.4 mi
- 026S039E26B001MNitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from China Lake Acres'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 China Lake Acres.
Total Sites
587
within ~10 miles of China Lake Acres
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of China Lake Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of China Lake Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around China Lake Acres, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 416 sites within ~10 miles of China Lake Acres. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in China Lake Acres
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 China Lake Acres average
Your land is one point inside China Lake Acres
Everything above resolves to China Lake Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 China Lake Acres Average
China Lake Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across China Lake Acres
- ●One soil character for all of China Lake Acres
- ●Frost dates read at China Lake Acres's scale: Feb 17 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not China Lake Acres's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in China Lake Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in China Lake Acres, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that China Lake Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around China Lake Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the China Lake Acres average
How we know this about China Lake Acres
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 China Lake Acres’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 China Lake Acres
When does frost risk typically end in China Lake Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in China Lake Acres typically lands around Feb 17, 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in China Lake Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in China Lake Acres typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in China Lake Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, China Lake Acres sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 11, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in China Lake Acres?
The federal record around China Lake Acres is a meaningful one — 587 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (416), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 China Lake Acres?
From about Oct 26 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 Nov 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 Nov 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at China Lake Acres's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of China Lake Acres'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 China Lake Acres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at China Lake Acres's own scale — its own ~281-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,334 acres it covers and 587 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- China Lake Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- China Lake Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 17 and Nov 25 and the ~281-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 587 documented contamination sites on the federal record near China Lake Acres, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- China Lake Acres's boundary and the 3,334 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- China Lake Acres sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so China Lake Acres's 3,334 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kern County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kern 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 Kern County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among China Lake Acres's 3,334 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of China Lake Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,334 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 China Lake Acres-wide figureread your own land →