Herlong, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Herlong, 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 Herlong 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 Herlong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Herlong — the short answer
Herlong, California: USDA zone 7a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7a is Herlong's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Herlong's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Herlong's own 30-year record measures about 173 days between 28°F killing freezes — 39 days longer than Lassen County's ~134. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Herlong's ~173-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Herlong
Each reading below is measured for Herlong itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHerlong runs about 173 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
MeasuredHerlong sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Herlong is in
Herlong sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Herlong's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lassen County is mostly Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Herlong
Every plant below cleared Herlong's own zone 7a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Herlong?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Herlong
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Herlong. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 027N016E35Q001MNitrate · 1400 ft
- 026N016E02G001MNitrate · 1500 ft
- herlongNitrate · 2300 ft
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SIERRA ARMY DEPOTToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS FCI HERLONGToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS FCI HERLONGSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- FEDERAL BUREAU OF PRISONS FCI HERLONGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SIERRA ARMY DEPOTBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LASSEN REGIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 025N017E06M001MNitrate · 6.6 mi
- BRIAN T PHILLIPS DBA DOYLE TOWINGBrownfields · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Herlong'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 Herlong.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of Herlong
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Herlong
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Herlong
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Herlong, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Herlong — Mining (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Herlong
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 Herlong average
Your land is one point inside Herlong
Everything above resolves to Herlong as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Herlong Average
Herlong Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Herlong
- ●One soil character for all of Herlong
- ●Frost dates read at Herlong's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Herlong's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Herlong
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Herlong, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Herlong averages can't show:
We read public map data around Herlong — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Herlong average
How we know this about Herlong
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 Herlong’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 Herlong
When does frost risk typically end in Herlong?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Herlong typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Herlong?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Herlong typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Herlong?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Herlong sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 3, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Herlong?
The federal record around Herlong is a meaningful one — 27 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Herlong?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Herlong's scale — its 7a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Herlong'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 Herlong’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Herlong's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,068 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Herlong's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Herlong's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 17 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Herlong, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Herlong's boundary and the 1,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Herlong sits in the Central 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 Herlong's 1,068 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lassen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lassen 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 Lassen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Herlong's 1,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Herlong you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,068 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Herlong-wide figureread your own land →
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