Loma Linda, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Loma Linda, 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 Loma Linda 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 Loma Linda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loma Linda — the short answer
Loma Linda, California: USDA zone 10a, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 San Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Loma Linda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loma Linda's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loma Linda
Each reading below is measured for Loma Linda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLoma Linda runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Loma Linda) — 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
MeasuredLoma Linda sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Loma Linda is in
Loma Linda sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Loma Linda's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Bernardino County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Loma Linda
Plants matched to Loma Linda's USDA zones 10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Loma Linda?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Loma Linda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loma Linda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JUBILANT DRAXIMAGE INC DBA JUBILANT RADIOPHARMABrownfields · 1500 ft
- TRIAD ISOTOPES, INC.Brownfields · 1500 ft
- LOMA LINDA FAMILY DENTISTRYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 001S004W36J001SNitrate · 1700 ft
- SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY DEHSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- STATER BROS MARKETS #81 LOMA LINDABrownfields · 1900 ft
- HARVEY ZALSMAN JR., D.D.S., M.D.Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NEW CINGULAR WIRELESS PCS LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CROWN CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CHEVRON NO 94213Brownfields · 2000 ft
- LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER - EBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Loma Linda University Medical Center East CampusUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loma Linda'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 Loma Linda.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loma Linda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loma Linda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loma Linda, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,714 sites within ~10 miles of Loma Linda. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Loma Linda
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 Loma Linda average
Your land is one point inside Loma Linda
Everything above resolves to Loma Linda as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Loma Linda Average
Loma Linda Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Loma Linda
- ●One soil character for all of Loma Linda
- ●Frost dates read at Loma Linda's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loma Linda's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loma Linda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loma Linda, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loma Linda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loma Linda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loma Linda average
How we know this about Loma Linda
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at San Bernardino 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Loma Linda
When does frost risk typically end in Loma Linda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loma Linda typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 8.
When is the first frost in Loma Linda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loma Linda typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loma Linda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loma Linda sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loma Linda?
The federal record around Loma Linda runs heavier than most — 4,891 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,714), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Loma Linda?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loma Linda's scale — its 10a band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loma Linda'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 Loma Linda’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Loma Linda's own scale — the 5,734 acres it covers and 4,891 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loma Linda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,891 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loma Linda, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loma Linda's boundary and the 5,734 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Loma Linda sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Loma Linda has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loma Linda's 5,734 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loma Linda's 5,734 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loma Linda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,734 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Loma Linda-wide figureread your own land →
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