Mono County, in California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor pumpkin, blackberry, california poppy, and zucchini, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Mono County lies within the Sierra Nevada High Country / Eastern Sierra — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Mono County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Mono 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 Mono County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mono County — the short answer
Mono County, California: USDA zone 6a, about 108 days between hard freezes, across 2.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~108
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.0M 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 6a is Mono County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mono County's 108-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Mono County
Across a year, Mono County accumulates about 911 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,846 fewer than the middle California county — ahead of 1 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Mono County
Across Mono County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Brantel, Honova, and Murain are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Mono County
The USDA soil survey maps 51% of Mono County as well drained — but another 43% drains differently: 26% somewhat excessively drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Brantel is the most extensive named soil at 5% of mapped acres, then Honova (3%) and Murain (2%).
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 Mono County
Each reading below is measured for Mono 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 Mono County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Mono County runs about pH 6.7–7.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMono County runs about 108 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMono County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Mono County is in
Mono County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Basin and Range (72%) and Sierra Nevada (28%). 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 Mono County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Mono County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 108-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 Mono County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
Documented around Mono County
- monarch butterfly16 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Mono County
USGS estimates 1,650 lb of Diuron on Mono County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,371 lb) and Metribuzin (387 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 Mono County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Mono County — 427 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.
Mono 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 Mono County
Closest first, across Mono County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IshterMining · 1.3 mi
- Occurrences.Mining · 1.3 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.3 mi
- PUMICE VALLEY TRANSFER STATION/LANDFILLBrownfields · 10.5 mi
- June Lake JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 12.0 mi
- 002S028E28P001MNitrate · 12.2 mi
- ADVENTURE IN CAMPING MAMMOTH INCBrownfields · 12.3 mi
- MARZANO & SONS DBA: MAMMOTH READY-MIXBrownfields · 12.3 mi
- Tioga Gas MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 13.2 mi
- MARZANO & SONS SAND & GRAVEL PITBrownfields · 13.6 mi
- GRANITE CONSTRUCTION COMPANYBrownfields · 13.7 mi
- POOLE POWER HOUSEBrownfields · 13.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mono 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 Mono County.
Sources Checked
across Mono County
Severity Distribution
across Mono County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mono County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 235 sites across Mono County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Mono 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 Mono County average
Your land is one point inside Mono County
Everything above resolves to Mono County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.0M 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 Mono County Average
Mono County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mono County
- ●One soil character for all of Mono County
- ●Frost dates read at Mono County's scale: Jun 4 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mono County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Mono County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mono County, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mono County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mono County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mono County average
How we know this about Mono 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 Mono County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Mono County
When does frost risk typically end in Mono County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mono County typically lands around Jun 4, 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 Jun 25.
How long is the growing season in Mono County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mono County sees about 108 frost-free days — roughly Jun 4 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 25 to Sep 6, about 73 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mono County?
The federal record around Mono County runs heavier than most — 427 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (235), the nearest Mining record about 1.3 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 gardeners stretch the season in Mono County?
With about 108 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mono County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 136 to 164 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 4 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mono County's scale — its 6a band and its 108-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mono 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 Mono County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Mono County's own scale — its own ~108-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 427 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mono County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mono County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~108-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Mono CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 427 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Mono County's boundary and the 1,951,297 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~108-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Mono County spans, Central Basin and Range the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Mono County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Mono 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 Mono County — the ~108 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 Mono County's 1,951,297 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 427 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 Mono Countyread your own land →