East Quincy, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Quincy, 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 Quincy 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 Quincy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Quincy — the short answer
East Quincy, California: USDA zone 7b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 7b is East Quincy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Quincy's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Quincy
Each reading below is measured for East Quincy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Quincy runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEast Quincy sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Quincy is in
East Quincy sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at East Quincy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in East Quincy
Every plant below cleared East Quincy's own zone 7b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Quincy?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near East Quincy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Quincy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMERICAN VALLEY CSDPFAS · 0.9 mi
- Ed Staub & Sons Petroleum, Inc. (Quincy Cardlock)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- QUINCY CARDLOCKBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CALTRANS DIST 2 QUICY MTS STABrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Relay Station-High Blue Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS 5962Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- JEFF DIESELBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY/FEATHER RIVER DISPOSALBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY ROAD DEPTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- NORTH STATE GROCERY INC DBA SAV MOR FOODSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14401Brownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Quincy'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 Quincy.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of East Quincy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Quincy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Quincy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Quincy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Quincy — Mining (52 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in East Quincy
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 Quincy average
Your land is one point inside East Quincy
Everything above resolves to East Quincy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 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 East Quincy Average
East Quincy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Quincy
- ●One soil character for all of East Quincy
- ●Frost dates read at East Quincy's scale: Apr 18 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Quincy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Quincy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Quincy, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Quincy averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Quincy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Quincy average
How we know this about East Quincy
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 East Quincy’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 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 East Quincy
When does frost risk typically end in East Quincy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Quincy typically lands around Apr 18, 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 May 9.
When is the first frost in East Quincy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Quincy typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Quincy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Quincy sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 19, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Quincy?
The federal record around East Quincy is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (66), the nearest PFAS record about 0.9 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 East Quincy?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Quincy's scale — its 7b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Quincy'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 Quincy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East Quincy's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,751 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Quincy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Quincy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Nov 2 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Quincy, the closest PFAS record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Quincy's boundary and the 7,751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Quincy's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Quincy's 7,751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Quincy's 7,751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Quincy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.9 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 Quincy-wide figureread your own land →