Sutter County, in California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Sutter County lies within the Sacramento 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
Sutter County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sutter 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 Sutter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sutter County — the short answer
Sutter County, California: USDA zone 9b, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 386K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 386K 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 9b is Sutter County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sutter County's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Sutter County
Across a year, Sutter County accumulates about 4,511 growing degree days above 50°F, about 754 more than the middle California county — ahead of 39 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 1,128 hours below 45°F, 59 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 Sutter County
Across Sutter County, the ground is predominantly Vertisols, where Clear Lake, Capay, and Oswald are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Vertisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Hydric soils
50%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sutter County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Sutter County as moderately well drained — but another 65% drains differently: 26% well drained, 22% poorly drained.
Clear Lake is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Capay (12%) and Oswald (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 Sutter County
Each reading below is measured for Sutter 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 Sutter County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Sutter 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 50% of Sutter 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
MeasuredSutter County runs about 330 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 Sutter County is in
Sutter County sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Sutter County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sutter County's own USDA zone 9b and its own 330-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 Sutter 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 Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What gets applied to farmland in Sutter County
USGS estimates 126,600 lb of Thiobencarb on Sutter County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (115,416 lb) and Triclopyr (16,778 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 Sutter County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sutter County — 955 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 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 Sutter 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 Sutter County
Closest first, across Sutter County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SALVADOR ALEJO ALEJO HARVESTINGBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- REASON FARMSBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CR HOPPIN FARMSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- LONG PAINTING COMPANYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 014N002E13L001MNitrate · 1.7 mi
- MANDEEP SINGH JOHL DBA MANNY JOHL FARMINGBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 014N003E29E001MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 014N002E13L002MNitrate · 1.8 mi
- RAFAEL ALVAREZ TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 014N003E18R002MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- CALPINE GREENLEAF HOLDINGS, INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- BRIAN TAYLOR CONCRETE CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sutter 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 Sutter County.
Total Sites
955
across Sutter County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Sutter County
Severity Distribution
across Sutter County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sutter County, two things run higher than the national average across Sutter County — Brownfields (589 sites) and Nitrate (314 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sutter 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 Sutter County average
Your land is one point inside Sutter County
Everything above resolves to Sutter County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 386K 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 Sutter County Average
Sutter County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sutter County
- ●One soil character for all of Sutter County
- ●Frost dates read at Sutter County's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sutter County's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sutter County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sutter County, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sutter County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sutter County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sutter County average
How we know this about Sutter 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 Sutter County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sutter County
When does frost risk typically end in Sutter County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sutter County typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
How long is the growing season in Sutter County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sutter County sees about 330 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Nov 28, about 295 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sutter County?
The federal record around Sutter County is a meaningful one — 955 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (589), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Sutter County's scale — its 9b band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sutter 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 Sutter County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Sutter County's own scale — its own ~330-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 955 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sutter County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sutter County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~330-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sutter CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 955 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sutter County's boundary and the 385,725 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~330-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sutter County sitting wholly inside the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sutter 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 Sutter County — the ~330 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 Sutter County's 385,725 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 955 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 Sutter Countyread your own land →