Crest, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Crest, 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 Crest 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 Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crest — the short answer
Crest, California: USDA zone 10b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- San Diego County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 San Diego County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is Crest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crest's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crest
Each reading below is measured for Crest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrest runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from San Diego County, the closest normal to Crest) — 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
MeasuredCrest sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Crest is in
Crest sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Crest's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Diego County.
What Grows in Crest
Plants matched to Crest's USDA zones 10b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Crest?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Crest
Spotted lanternfly documented 30 miles from Crest, first recorded 2022. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Crest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BENNETT MCDONALDBrownfields · 1500 ft
- CAJON VALLEY UNION SCHOOL DISTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CREST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 2000 ft
- TRACY STIELAYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DARRIN FRANCISBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- SycuanPFAS · 1.5 mi
- SYCUAN MARKET AND GAS STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 016S001E14G001SNitrate · 1.6 mi
- 016S001E14G004SNitrate · 1.6 mi
- 016S001E21A001SNitrate · 2.1 mi
- P&M CHEMICAL WASTE TRANSPORTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- SYCUAN MEDICAL DENTAL CENTERBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crest'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 Crest.
Total Sites
2,429
within ~10 miles of Crest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crest, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,198 sites within ~10 miles of Crest. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Crest
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 Crest average
Your land is one point inside Crest
Everything above resolves to Crest as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Diego County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Crest Average
Crest Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Crest
- ●One soil character for all of Crest
- ●Frost dates read at Crest's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crest's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crest, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crest average
How we know this about Crest
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at San Diego 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Crest
When does frost risk typically end in Crest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crest typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Crest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crest typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crest sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 27, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crest?
The federal record around Crest is a meaningful one — 2,429 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,198), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crest?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crest's scale — its 10b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crest'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 Crest’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crest's own scale — the 4,179 acres it covers and 2,429 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,429 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crest, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crest's boundary and the 4,179 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Crest's own centroid, the Southern California/Northern Baja CoastUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Crestlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crest has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Diego County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crest's 4,179 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Diego County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Diego 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 San Diego County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crest's 4,179 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,179 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 Crest-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Wider growing context
What grows across CaliforniaCrest sits outside our named growing regions, so California as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides