Mabie, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mabie, 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 Mabie 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 Mabie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mabie — the short answer
Mabie, California: USDA zone 6b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- 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 Mabie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mabie's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mabie
Each reading below is measured for Mabie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMabie runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMabie 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 Mabie is in
Mabie sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mabie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Mabie
Every plant below cleared Mabie's own zone 6b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mabie?
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 Apr 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Mabie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mabie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Big Mohawk MineMining · 2.4 mi
- PLUMAS-SIERRA RECBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY - PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- 023N013E34Q001MNitrate · 3.1 mi
- DAVID LEE HUMPHREY/DBA CRESCENT TOWBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- RIGGS & SMITH ENTERPRISES INC DBA SIERRA GARAGEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- COATES INC DBA COATES TIRE CENTER ALSO LES SCHWAB TIRE CENTERBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- HUNT & SONS LLCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTYBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- PLUMAS COUNTY PUBLIC WORKSBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- WHITE CAP READY MIX INCBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mabie'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 Mabie.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Mabie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mabie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mabie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mabie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mabie — Mining (7 sites) and Brownfields (42 sites). 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mabie
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 Mabie average
Your land is one point inside Mabie
Everything above resolves to Mabie 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 Mabie Average
Mabie Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Mabie
- ●One soil character for all of Mabie
- ●Frost dates read at Mabie's scale: May 13 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mabie's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mabie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mabie, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mabie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mabie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mabie average
How we know this about Mabie
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 Mabie’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 Mabie
When does frost risk typically end in Mabie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mabie typically lands around May 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 Jun 3.
When is the first frost in Mabie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mabie typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mabie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mabie sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 24, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mabie?
The federal record around Mabie is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (42), the nearest Mining record about 2.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Mabie?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mabie rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Mabie's scale — its 6b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mabie'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 Mabie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mabie's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,330 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mabie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mabie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Oct 8 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mabie, the closest Mining record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mabie's boundary and the 2,330 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mabie's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mabie's 2,330 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mabie's 2,330 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mabie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,330 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.4 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 Mabie-wide figureread your own land →