Cutler, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cutler, 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 Cutler 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 Cutler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cutler — the short answer
Cutler, California: USDA zone 9b, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 783 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Tulare County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 783 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 Tulare County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Cutler's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cutler's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cutler
Each reading below is measured for Cutler itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCutler runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Tulare County, the closest normal to Cutler) — 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
MeasuredCutler sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Cutler is in
Cutler sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Cutler's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tulare County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cutler
Plants matched to Cutler's USDA zones 9b, 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 Cutler?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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's on the federal record near Cutler
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cutler. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CUTLER PUBLIC UTILITY DISTBrownfields · 550 ft
- LAINEZ TIRE SERVICEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- STEVEN BABA DMDBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CUTLER FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 016S025E19H003MNitrate · 1600 ft
- PUREGRO COMPANY UNIT 149Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- TULARE COUNTY / CUTLER FIRE STATIONBrownfields · 2000 ft
- WILEMAN BROS & ELLIOTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ARNOLD TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2000 ft
- AT & T MOBILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LEON SERVICE STATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cutler'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 Cutler.
Total Sites
378
within ~10 miles of Cutler
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cutler
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cutler
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cutler, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cutler — Brownfields (278 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cutler
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 Cutler average
Your land is one point inside Cutler
Everything above resolves to Cutler as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 783 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tulare 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 Cutler Average
Cutler Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Cutler
- ●One soil character for all of Cutler
- ●Frost dates read at Cutler's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cutler's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cutler
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cutler, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cutler averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cutler — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cutler average
How we know this about Cutler
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 Tulare 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 Cutler
When does frost risk typically end in Cutler?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cutler typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 10.
When is the first frost in Cutler?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cutler typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cutler?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cutler sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 26, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cutler?
The federal record around Cutler is a meaningful one — 378 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (278), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Cutler?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cutler's scale — its 9b band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cutler'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 Cutler’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Cutler's own scale — the 783 acres it covers and 378 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cutler's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cutler, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cutler's boundary and the 783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Cutler sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cutler has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tulare County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cutler's 783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tulare 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 Tulare 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 Tulare County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cutler's 783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cutler you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 783 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Cutler-wide figureread your own land →
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