Chowchilla, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chowchilla, 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 Chowchilla 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 Chowchilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chowchilla — the short answer
Chowchilla, California: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Madera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Madera County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Chowchilla's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chowchilla's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chowchilla
Each reading below is measured for Chowchilla itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChowchilla runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Madera County, the closest normal to Chowchilla) — 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
MeasuredChowchilla 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 Chowchilla is in
Chowchilla sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Chowchilla's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madera County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chowchilla
Every plant below cleared Chowchilla's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chowchilla?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Chowchilla
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chowchilla. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHOWCHILLA GARAGEBrownfields · 2500 ft
- UNION METAL CORPBrownfields · 2500 ft
- TAYLOR FARMINGBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PIRANHA PIPE AND PRECASTToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- LAS PALMAS AUTO CENTER IND DBA LAS PALMAS AUTO CENTERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LB FOSTER CO-CHOWCHILLA YARDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ULTRAMAR INC 3366Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- STEVES CHEVROLET OF CHOWCHILLA LLCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CENTRAL VALLEY CONCRETEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BF CHEM CO INC CHOWCHILLABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- INENTEC MEDICAL SVCS CALIFORNIA LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CHOWCHILLA WATER DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chowchilla'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 Chowchilla.
Total Sites
320
within ~10 miles of Chowchilla
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chowchilla
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chowchilla
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chowchilla, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 144 sites within ~10 miles of Chowchilla. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Chowchilla
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 Chowchilla average
Your land is one point inside Chowchilla
Everything above resolves to Chowchilla as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madera County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Chowchilla Average
Chowchilla Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Chowchilla
- ●One soil character for all of Chowchilla
- ●Frost dates read at Chowchilla's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chowchilla's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chowchilla
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chowchilla, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chowchilla averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chowchilla — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chowchilla average
How we know this about Chowchilla
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Madera 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Chowchilla
When does frost risk typically end in Chowchilla?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chowchilla typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 26.
When is the first frost in Chowchilla?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chowchilla typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chowchilla?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chowchilla sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chowchilla?
The federal record around Chowchilla is a meaningful one — 320 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (153), 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 Chowchilla?
From about Nov 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 Dec 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 Dec 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chowchilla's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chowchilla'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 Chowchilla’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Chowchilla's own scale — the 7,387 acres it covers and 320 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chowchilla's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 320 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chowchilla, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chowchilla's boundary and the 7,387 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chowchilla sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chowchilla has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madera County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chowchilla's 7,387 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madera 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 Madera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chowchilla's 7,387 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chowchilla you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,387 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 Chowchilla-wide figureread your own land →
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