Dales, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dales, 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 Dales 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 Dales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dales — the short answer
Dales, California: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 413 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 413 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 Tehama County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Dales's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dales's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dales
Each reading below is measured for Dales itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDales runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Tehama County, the closest normal to Dales) — 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
MeasuredDales 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 Dales is in
Dales sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Dales's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tehama County.
What Grows in Dales
Every plant below cleared Dales's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dales?
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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Dales
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dales. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLEMAN NATIONAL FISH HATCHERYBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- 029N003W01G001MNitrate · 7.4 mi
- CALIFORNIA NEVEDA FISH HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- DARRAH SPRINGS FISH HATCHERYBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 8.5 mi
- 028N003W28A001MNitrate · 8.8 mi
- 029N003W03L001MNitrate · 9.0 mi
- 028N003W21Q001MNitrate · 9.1 mi
- 029N003W16H001MNitrate · 9.2 mi
- 029N003W29K001MNitrate · 9.2 mi
- 029N003W04H001MNitrate · 9.6 mi
Measured from Dales'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 Dales.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dales
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Dales
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 Dales average
Your land is one point inside Dales
Everything above resolves to Dales as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 413 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tehama 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 Dales Average
Dales Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Dales
- ●One soil character for all of Dales
- ●Frost dates read at Dales's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dales's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dales
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dales, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dales averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dales — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dales average
How we know this about Dales
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 Tehama 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 Dales
When does frost risk typically end in Dales?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dales typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Dales?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dales typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dales?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dales sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 29, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dales?
The federal record around Dales is light — 20 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Brownfields record about 7.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dales?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dales's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dales'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 Dales’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Dales's own scale — the 413 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dales's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dales, the closest Brownfields record about 7.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dales's boundary and the 413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dales's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dales has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tehama County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dales's 413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tehama County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tehama 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 Tehama County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dales's 413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dales you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 413 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 7.4 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 Dales-wide figureread your own land →