Kings County, in 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.
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.
Kings County lies within the San Joaquin Valley and the California Central Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kings County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kings 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 Kings County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kings County — the short answer
Kings County, California: USDA zone 9a, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 890K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 890K 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 Kings County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kings County's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Kings County
Across a year, Kings County accumulates about 5,123 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,366 more than the middle California county — ahead of 49 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 1,155 hours below 45°F, 32 fewer 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 Kings County
Across Kings County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Tulare, Nord, and Kimberlina are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.3, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
41%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kings County
The USDA soil survey maps 38% of Kings County as well drained — but another 59% drains differently: 29% somewhat poorly drained, 12% poorly drained.
Tulare is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Nord (7%) and Kimberlina (7%).
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 Kings County
Each reading below is measured for Kings 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 Kings County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Kings County runs about pH 7.5–8.3, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 41% of Kings County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredKings County runs about 323 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
The kind of country Kings County is in
Kings County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central California Valley (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 Kings County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kings County's own USDA zone 9a and its own 323-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 Kings County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 17 (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.
Documented around Kings County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kings County
USGS estimates 521,697 lb of Glyphosate on Kings County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Malathion (63,562 lb) and Dimethoate (41,472 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 Kings County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kings County — 1,276 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Kings County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kings County
Closest first, across Kings County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 021S020E28B001MNitrate · 2600 ft
- 021S020E26D001MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 021S020E10Q001MNitrate · 2.9 mi
- 021S019E35J001MNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 021S019E23A001MNitrate · 3.8 mi
- 021S019E12N001MNitrate · 4.3 mi
- 022S019E13J001MNitrate · 4.6 mi
- 022S021E18D002MNitrate · 5.1 mi
- 020S020E33A002MNitrate · 5.6 mi
- GCM FARMSBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- 021S019E01D003MNitrate · 5.6 mi
- STONE LAND COBrownfields · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kings 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 Kings County.
Total Sites
1,276
across Kings County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kings County
Severity Distribution
across Kings County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kings County, two things run higher than the national average across Kings County — Nitrate (438 sites) and Brownfields (698 sites). 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Kings 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 Kings County average
Your land is one point inside Kings County
Everything above resolves to Kings County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 890K 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 Kings County Average
Kings County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Kings County
- ●One soil character for all of Kings County
- ●Frost dates read at Kings County's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kings County's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kings County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kings County, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kings County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kings County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kings County average
How we know this about Kings 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 Kings County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kings County
When does frost risk typically end in Kings County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kings County typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 7.
How long is the growing season in Kings County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kings County sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Nov 22, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kings County?
The federal record around Kings County is a meaningful one — 1,276 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (698), the nearest Nitrate 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.
Everything above is measured at Kings County's scale — its 9a band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kings 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 Kings County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kings County's own scale — its own ~323-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,276 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kings County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kings County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~323-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kings CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,276 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kings County's boundary and the 890,222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kings County spans, Central California Valley the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kings County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kings 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 Kings County — the ~323 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 Kings County's 890,222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,276 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 Kings Countyread your own land →