El Dorado County, in California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
El Dorado County lies within the Sierra Nevada Foothills — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
El Dorado County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across El Dorado County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 El Dorado County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Dorado County — the short answer
El Dorado County, California: USDA zone 9a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 1.1M acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.1M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 9a is El Dorado County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Dorado County's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in El Dorado County
Across a year, El Dorado County accumulates about 3,019 growing degree days above 50°F, about 738 fewer than the middle California county — ahead of 16 of California’s 57 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,114 hours below 45°F, 927 more than the California middle of 1,187. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in El Dorado County
Across El Dorado County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Auburn, Waca, and McCarthy are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.1, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across El Dorado County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of El Dorado County as well drained — but another 27% drains differently: 13% somewhat excessively drained, 9% excessively drained.
Auburn is the most extensive named soil at 6% of mapped acres, then Waca (6%) and McCarthy (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in El Dorado County
Each reading below is measured for El Dorado County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across El Dorado County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across El Dorado County runs about pH 5.8–6.1, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredEl Dorado County runs about 256 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEl Dorado County 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 El Dorado County is in
El Dorado County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Sierra Nevada (78%) and Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains (22%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in El Dorado County
We scored all 1,086 plants against El Dorado County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 256-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's California profile.
Is it too late to plant in El Dorado County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around El Dorado County
- monarch butterfly10 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in El Dorado County
USGS estimates 2,396 lb of Glyphosate on El Dorado County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Oryzalin (437 lb) and Triclopyr (212 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across El Dorado County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across El Dorado County — 1,245 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
El Dorado County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near El Dorado County
Closest first, across El Dorado County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SACRAMENTO MUNICIPLE UTILITY DISTRICT FRESH PONDBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- EID/HYDROELECTRIC DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- EL DORADO IRRIGATION DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District - FreshpondUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- FRESH POND PETRO INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FRESH POND PETRO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 011N013E31H001MNitrate · 2.4 mi
- BLUE SKY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CRYSTAL VIEW STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SHELL CRYSTAL VIEW STATIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR INC #10709Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- ELDOB ENTERPRISES LLC DBA SIERRA TIRE & WHEELBrownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Dorado County'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 El Dorado County.
Total Sites
1,245
across El Dorado County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across El Dorado County
Severity Distribution
across El Dorado County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Dorado County, two things run higher than the national average across El Dorado County — Mining (247 sites) and Brownfields (758 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
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 El Dorado County
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 El Dorado County average
Your land is one point inside El Dorado County
Everything above resolves to El Dorado County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.1M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the El Dorado County Average
El Dorado County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across El Dorado County
- ●One soil character for all of El Dorado County
- ●Frost dates read at El Dorado County's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Dorado County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in El Dorado County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Dorado County, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Dorado County averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Dorado County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Dorado County average
How we know this about El Dorado County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where El Dorado County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about El Dorado County
When does frost risk typically end in El Dorado County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Dorado County typically lands around Mar 18, 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 Apr 8.
How long is the growing season in El Dorado County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Dorado County sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 15, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Dorado County?
The federal record around El Dorado County runs heavier than most — 1,245 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (758), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.6 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.
Everything above is measured at El Dorado County's scale — its 9a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Dorado County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads California's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at El Dorado County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at El Dorado County's own scale — its own ~256-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,245 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Dorado County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- El Dorado County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in El Dorado CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,245 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- El Dorado County's boundary and the 1,093,018 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions El Dorado County spans, Sierra Nevada the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in El Dorado County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto El Dorado County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every California grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across El Dorado County — the ~256 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Dorado County's 1,093,018 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,245 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over El Dorado Countyread your own land →