Fort Bidwell, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Bidwell, 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 Fort Bidwell 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 Fort Bidwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Bidwell — the short answer
Fort Bidwell, California: USDA zone 6b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 6b is Fort Bidwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Bidwell's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Bidwell
Each reading below is measured for Fort Bidwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Bidwell runs about 162 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
MeasuredFort Bidwell sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Fort Bidwell is in
Fort Bidwell sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Bidwell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Modoc County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Bidwell
Every plant below cleared Fort Bidwell's own zone 6b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Bidwell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Fort Bidwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Bidwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MODOC COUNTY-DEPT. PUB. WORKSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Sweeney ProspectMining · 3.2 mi
- Northern StarMining · 6.4 mi
- Discovery ClaimMining · 6.4 mi
- Shasta ViewMining · 7.0 mi
- Seitz MineMining · 7.1 mi
- Ft. Bidwell Consolidated MinesMining · 7.1 mi
- SeitzMining · 7.2 mi
- Red Hawk MineMining · 7.8 mi
- Unnamed LocationMining · 8.5 mi
- UnknownMining · 8.7 mi
- Mercury OccurrenceMining · 8.9 mi
Measured from Fort Bidwell'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 Fort Bidwell.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Bidwell
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Fort Bidwell
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 Fort Bidwell average
Your land is one point inside Fort Bidwell
Everything above resolves to Fort Bidwell 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 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 Fort Bidwell Average
Fort Bidwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fort Bidwell
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Bidwell
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Bidwell's scale: May 2 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Bidwell's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Bidwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Bidwell, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Bidwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Bidwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Bidwell average
How we know this about Fort Bidwell
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 Fort Bidwell’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 Fort Bidwell
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Bidwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Bidwell typically lands around May 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 May 23.
When is the first frost in Fort Bidwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Bidwell typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Bidwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Bidwell sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 27, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Bidwell?
The federal record around Fort Bidwell shows 15 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (14), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Bidwell?
From about Sep 11 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 Oct 11 (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 Oct 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Bidwell's scale — its 6b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Bidwell'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 Fort Bidwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Bidwell's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,051 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Bidwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Bidwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 11 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Bidwell, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Bidwell's boundary and the 2,051 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Bidwell sits in the Northern Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Bidwell's 2,051 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Modoc County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Modoc 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 Modoc County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Bidwell's 2,051 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Bidwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,051 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Fort Bidwell-wide figureread your own land →
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