Dinuba, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dinuba, 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 Dinuba 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 Dinuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dinuba — the short answer
Dinuba, California: USDA zone 9b, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- 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
- City 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 Tulare County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Dinuba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dinuba's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dinuba
Each reading below is measured for Dinuba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDinuba runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Tulare County, the closest normal to Dinuba) — 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
MeasuredDinuba 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 Dinuba is in
Dinuba sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Dinuba'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 Dinuba
Plants matched to Dinuba'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 Dinuba?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Dinuba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dinuba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ED RALSTONBrownfields · 400 ft
- ARMANDOS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 450 ft
- DINUBA TIRES INCBrownfields · 500 ft
- SALLY BEAUTY SUPPLIESBrownfields · 500 ft
- WESTERN DENTAL SERVICES, INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5394Brownfields · 950 ft
- KWIK KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DINUBA UNOCALBrownfields · 1200 ft
- ARCO -DINUBAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- QUIC SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- QUIC SHOP CHEVRON CAR WASHBrownfields · 1300 ft
- KAWEAH DELTA DINUBA CLINICBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dinuba'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 Dinuba.
Total Sites
585
within ~10 miles of Dinuba
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dinuba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dinuba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dinuba, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dinuba — Brownfields (429 sites) and PFAS (6 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.
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 Dinuba
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 Dinuba average
Your land is one point inside Dinuba
Everything above resolves to Dinuba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tulare County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Dinuba Average
Dinuba Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Dinuba
- ●One soil character for all of Dinuba
- ●Frost dates read at Dinuba's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dinuba's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dinuba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dinuba, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dinuba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dinuba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dinuba average
How we know this about Dinuba
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Dinuba
When does frost risk typically end in Dinuba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dinuba 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 Dinuba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dinuba 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 Dinuba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dinuba 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 Dinuba?
The federal record around Dinuba is a meaningful one — 585 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (429), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dinuba?
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 Dinuba's scale — its 9b band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dinuba'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 Dinuba’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Dinuba's own scale — the 4,292 acres it covers and 585 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dinuba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 585 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dinuba, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dinuba's boundary and the 4,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Dinuba 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 — Dinuba 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 Dinuba's 4,292 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 Dinuba's 4,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dinuba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dinuba-wide figureread your own land →
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