Hayfork, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hayfork, 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 Hayfork 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 Hayfork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hayfork — the short answer
Hayfork, California: USDA zone 8a, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 46K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 46K 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 8a is Hayfork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hayfork's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hayfork
Each reading below is measured for Hayfork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHayfork runs about 199 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
MeasuredHayfork sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Hayfork is in
Hayfork sits in the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Hayfork's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trinity County.
What Grows in Hayfork
Every plant below cleared Hayfork's own zone 8a and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hayfork?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Hayfork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hayfork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRINITY PUBLIC UTILITIES DISTRICTBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SHASTA TRINITY NATIONAL FOREST DISPOSAL OF ILLEGAL MARIJUANA GROW SITE CHEMICALSBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- 2019 ILLEGAL MARIJUANA GROW SITES WASTE REMOVALBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- USDA USFS R05 HAYFORK CABrownfields · 2.7 mi
- SIERRA PACIFIC INDUSTRIES HAYFORK DIVToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- HAYFORK HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- CAL TRANS HAYFORK MAINT STNBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- TRINITY COUNTY ROAD DEPT (HAYFORK MAINT YARD)Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- Kelley MineMining · 3.0 mi
- CALTRANS 02-0H0904 CARR CREEK OVERLAYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- STILLWELL AUTO WRECKING AND RECYCLINGBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- HAYFORK ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hayfork'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 Hayfork.
Total Sites
36
within ~10 miles of Hayfork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hayfork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hayfork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hayfork, Mining runs higher than the national average — 17 sites within ~10 miles of Hayfork. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Hayfork
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 Hayfork average
Your land is one point inside Hayfork
Everything above resolves to Hayfork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 46K 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 Hayfork Average
Hayfork Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hayfork
- ●One soil character for all of Hayfork
- ●Frost dates read at Hayfork's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hayfork's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hayfork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hayfork, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hayfork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hayfork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hayfork average
How we know this about Hayfork
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 Hayfork’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 Hayfork
When does frost risk typically end in Hayfork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hayfork typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Hayfork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hayfork typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hayfork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hayfork sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 15, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hayfork?
The federal record around Hayfork is a meaningful one — 36 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (17), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.6 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 Hayfork?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hayfork's scale — its 8a band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hayfork'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 Hayfork’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hayfork's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 46,173 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hayfork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hayfork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 29 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hayfork, the closest Brownfields record about 2.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hayfork's boundary and the 46,173 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hayfork's own centroid, the Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hayfork's 46,173 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trinity County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trinity 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 Trinity County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hayfork's 46,173 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hayfork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 46,173 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.6 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 Hayfork-wide figureread your own land →
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