El Macero, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in El Macero, 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 El Macero 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 El Macero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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El Macero — the short answer
El Macero, California: USDA zone 9b, about 334 days between hard freezes, across 376 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~334
- Yolo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 376 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 Yolo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is El Macero's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Macero's 334-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in El Macero
Each reading below is measured for El Macero itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEl Macero runs about 334 days between hard freezes (read from Yolo County, the closest normal to El Macero) — 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
MeasuredEl Macero 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 El Macero is in
El Macero sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at El Macero's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yolo County.
What Grows in El Macero
Every plant below cleared El Macero's own zone 9b and its 334-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in El Macero?
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 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near El Macero
Closest first, within ~10 miles of El Macero. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EL MACERO COUNTRY CLUBBrownfields · 250 ft
- CITY OF DAVISPFAS · 1600 ft
- DEIDRE SILVABrownfields · 2000 ft
- BOB DUFORDBrownfields · 2200 ft
- EL MACERO CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DAVIS VALEROBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DAVIS PETROLEUM LLC dba Bassi ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DAVIS VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HANLEES FORD & HANLEES NISSANBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HANLEES DAVIS, INC. DBA HANLEES NISSANBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- M TECH AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- COOKS COLLISION, AN ABRA COMPANY- CHILEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Macero'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 El Macero.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of El Macero
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of El Macero
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Macero, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,122 sites within ~10 miles of El Macero. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in El Macero
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 El Macero average
Your land is one point inside El Macero
Everything above resolves to El Macero as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 376 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yolo 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 El Macero Average
El Macero Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across El Macero
- ●One soil character for all of El Macero
- ●Frost dates read at El Macero's scale: Jan 17 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Macero's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in El Macero
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Macero, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Macero averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Macero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Macero average
How we know this about El Macero
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 Yolo 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 El Macero
When does frost risk typically end in El Macero?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Macero typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 7.
When is the first frost in El Macero?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in El Macero typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 334 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in El Macero?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Macero sees about 334 frost-free days — roughly Jan 17 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 7 to Dec 3, about 299 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Macero?
The federal record around El Macero is a meaningful one — 1,361 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,122), 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 El Macero?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at El Macero's scale — its 9b band and its 334-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Macero'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 El Macero’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at El Macero's own scale — the 376 acres it covers and 1,361 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Macero's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,361 documented contamination sites on the federal record near El Macero, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- El Macero's boundary and the 376 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~334-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at El Macero's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — El Macero has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yolo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so El Macero's 376 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yolo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yolo 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 Yolo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among El Macero's 376 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of El Macero you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 376 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 El Macero-wide figureread your own land →