East Palo Alto, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Even in East Palo Alto, 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 East Palo Alto 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 East Palo Alto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
East Palo Alto — the short answer
East Palo Alto, California: USDA zone 10a, about 355 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~355
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 10a is East Palo Alto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Palo Alto's 355-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Palo Alto
Each reading below is measured for East Palo Alto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Palo Alto runs about 355 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEast Palo Alto sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 East Palo Alto is in
East Palo Alto sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at East Palo Alto's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Mateo County is mostly Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in East Palo Alto
Every plant below cleared East Palo Alto's own zone 10a and its 355-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Palo Alto?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — 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.
Documented around East Palo Alto
Spotted lanternfly documented 20 miles from East Palo Alto, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Palo Alto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Palo Alto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1060 WEEKS STREETBrownfields · 950 ft
- SOUTH COUNTY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER INC DBA RAVENSWOOD FAMILY HEALTHBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PRINTEX CONCRETE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SHELL OIL COBrownfields · 1500 ft
- ELECTRITE PLATING COMPANY INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- EASTSIDE COLLEGE PREPARATORY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1600 ft
- BAY CITY BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- EAST PALO ALTO YOUTH ARTS AND MUSIC CENTERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- LLANOS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1800 ft
- 005S003W25G001MNitrate · 1800 ft
- EDEN CROUCHBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CAL-SPRAY, INC.Brownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Palo Alto'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 East Palo Alto.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Palo Alto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Palo Alto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Palo Alto, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 5,528 sites within ~10 miles of East Palo Alto. 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 East Palo Alto
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 East Palo Alto average
Your land is one point inside East Palo Alto
Everything above resolves to East Palo Alto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 East Palo Alto Average
East Palo Alto Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across East Palo Alto
- ●One soil character for all of East Palo Alto
- ●Frost dates read at East Palo Alto's scale: Jan 2 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Palo Alto's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Palo Alto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Palo Alto, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Palo Alto averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Palo Alto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Palo Alto average
How we know this about East Palo Alto
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 East Palo Alto’s own record; 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 East Palo Alto
When does frost risk typically end in East Palo Alto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Palo Alto typically lands around Jan 2, 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 Jan 23.
When is the first frost in East Palo Alto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Palo Alto typically arrives around Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 9, so the watching starts about Nov 23 — about 355 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Palo Alto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Palo Alto sees about 355 frost-free days — roughly Jan 2 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 23 to Dec 9, about 320 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Palo Alto?
The federal record around East Palo Alto runs heavier than most — 6,186 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,528), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in East Palo Alto?
From about Nov 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Palo Alto's scale — its 10a band and its 355-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Palo Alto'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 East Palo Alto’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Palo Alto's own scale — its own ~355-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,618 acres it covers and 6,186 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Palo Alto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Palo Alto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 2 and Dec 23 and the ~355-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6,186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Palo Alto, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Palo Alto's boundary and the 1,618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~355-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- East Palo Alto sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of East Palo Altolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Palo Alto's 1,618 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Mateo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Mateo 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 Mateo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Palo Alto's 1,618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Palo Alto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,618 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 East Palo Alto-wide figureread your own land →