Chinese Camp, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chinese Camp, 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 Chinese Camp 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 Chinese Camp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chinese Camp — the short answer
Chinese Camp, California: USDA zone 9b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 575 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 575 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 Tuolumne County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Chinese Camp's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chinese Camp's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chinese Camp
Each reading below is measured for Chinese Camp itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChinese Camp runs about 183 days between hard freezes (read from Tuolumne County, the closest normal to Chinese Camp) — 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
MeasuredChinese Camp 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 Chinese Camp is in
Chinese Camp sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Chinese Camp's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tuolumne County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chinese Camp
Plants matched to Chinese Camp's USDA zones 9b, 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 Chinese Camp?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Chinese Camp
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chinese Camp. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chinese CampMining · 1400 ft
- Mariano RanchMining · 1500 ft
- Eggling and Williams MineMining · 1900 ft
- Eggling and Williams MinesMining · 2400 ft
- Eggling and WilliamsMining · 0.5 mi
- Leonard Lapappe ProspectMining · 0.6 mi
- Leonard LapappeMining · 0.6 mi
- Burns and TursichMining · 0.6 mi
- Burns and Turzich MineMining · 0.6 mi
- CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SIERRA PACIFIC IND CHINESE DIVBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chinese Camp'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 Chinese Camp.
Total Sites
367
within ~10 miles of Chinese Camp
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chinese Camp
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chinese Camp
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chinese Camp, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chinese Camp — Mining (145 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Chinese Camp
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 Chinese Camp average
Your land is one point inside Chinese Camp
Everything above resolves to Chinese Camp as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 575 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tuolumne 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 Chinese Camp Average
Chinese Camp Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Chinese Camp
- ●One soil character for all of Chinese Camp
- ●Frost dates read at Chinese Camp's scale: May 5 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chinese Camp's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chinese Camp
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chinese Camp, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chinese Camp averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chinese Camp — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chinese Camp average
How we know this about Chinese Camp
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 Tuolumne 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 Chinese Camp
When does frost risk typically end in Chinese Camp?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chinese Camp typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Chinese Camp?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chinese Camp typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chinese Camp?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chinese Camp sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 21, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chinese Camp?
The federal record around Chinese Camp runs heavier than most — 367 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (192), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Chinese Camp?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chinese Camp's scale — its 9b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chinese Camp'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 Chinese Camp’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Chinese Camp's own scale — the 575 acres it covers and 367 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chinese Camp's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 367 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chinese Camp, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chinese Camp's boundary and the 575 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Chinese Camp sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chinese Camp has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tuolumne County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chinese Camp's 575 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chinese Camp's 575 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chinese Camp you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 575 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.3 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 Chinese Camp-wide figureread your own land →
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