Corning, 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 okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Corning, 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 Corning 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 Corning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Corning — the short answer
Corning, California: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Tehama County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Corning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corning's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corning
Each reading below is measured for Corning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCorning runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Tehama County, the closest normal to Corning) — 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
MeasuredCorning 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 Corning is in
Corning sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Corning's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tehama County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Corning
Every plant below cleared Corning's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corning?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Corning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T California - TA023Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- FLYING A PERFORMANCEBrownfields · 450 ft
- PACIFIC BELL C/O ALLEN TA023Brownfields · 500 ft
- HI-TECH DIESEL SPECIALIST INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- DIGNITY HEALTH SOLANO STREET MEDICAL CLINICBrownfields · 900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #20054Brownfields · 900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN INC #20054Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CITY OF CORNING PUBLIC WORKS DEPTBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 024N003W15R001MNitrate · 1000 ft
- EARL PETERSONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- AA TOWING & AUTO MECHANICBrownfields · 1300 ft
- BELL-CARTER OLIVE CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Corning'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 Corning.
Total Sites
319
within ~10 miles of Corning
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Corning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Corning, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 198 sites within ~10 miles of Corning. 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 Corning
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 Corning average
Your land is one point inside Corning
Everything above resolves to Corning as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tehama 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 Corning Average
Corning Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Corning
- ●One soil character for all of Corning
- ●Frost dates read at Corning's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corning's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corning, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corning average
How we know this about Corning
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 Tehama 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 Corning
When does frost risk typically end in Corning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corning typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Corning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corning typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corning sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 29, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corning?
The federal record around Corning is a meaningful one — 319 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (198), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Corning?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corning's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corning'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 Corning’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Corning's own scale — the 2,270 acres it covers and 319 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 319 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corning's boundary and the 2,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Corning 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 — Corning has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tehama County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Corning's 2,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tehama County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tehama 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 Tehama County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corning's 2,270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,270 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Corning-wide figureread your own land →