Lone Pine, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 Lone Pine, 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 Lone Pine 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 Lone Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lone Pine — the short answer
Lone Pine, California: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 12K 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 8b is Lone Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lone Pine's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lone Pine
Each reading below is measured for Lone Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLone Pine runs about 273 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLone Pine sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Lone Pine is in
Lone Pine sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Lone Pine's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Inyo County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lone Pine
Every plant below cleared Lone Pine's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lone Pine?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Lone Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lone Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 016S036E05N001MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 016S036E04B001MNitrate · 0.9 mi
- LONE PINE FUEL MGMT INC AKA CHEVRONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Lone Pine Fuel Management, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MILLERS TOWINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- Lone Pine Reservation Monitoring Well - 6Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- LONE PINE DISTRIBUTION HQBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- COUNTY OF INYOBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- 015S036E28F002MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- LONE PINE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- BILLS AUTO REPAIR & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Lone Pine Reservation Monitoring Well - 4Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lone Pine'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 Lone Pine.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lone Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lone Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lone Pine, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lone Pine — Mining (41 sites) and Nitrate (24 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lone Pine
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 Lone Pine average
Your land is one point inside Lone Pine
Everything above resolves to Lone Pine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 Lone Pine Average
Lone Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lone Pine
- ●One soil character for all of Lone Pine
- ●Frost dates read at Lone Pine's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lone Pine's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lone Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lone Pine, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lone Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lone Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lone Pine average
How we know this about Lone Pine
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 Lone Pine’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 Lone Pine
When does frost risk typically end in Lone Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lone Pine typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 20.
When is the first frost in Lone Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lone Pine typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lone Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lone Pine sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 13, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lone Pine?
The federal record around Lone Pine runs heavier than most — 83 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (41), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lone Pine?
From about Oct 28 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 Nov 27 (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 Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lone Pine's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lone Pine'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 Lone Pine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lone Pine's own scale — its own ~273-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,182 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lone Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lone Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 27 and Nov 27 and the ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lone Pine, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lone Pine's boundary and the 12,182 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lone Pine 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 Lone Pine's 12,182 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Inyo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Inyo 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 Inyo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lone Pine's 12,182 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lone Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,182 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Lone Pine-wide figureread your own land →