McArthur, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McArthur, 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 McArthur 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 McArthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McArthur — the short answer
McArthur, California: USDA zone 7a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 641 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 641 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 McArthur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McArthur's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McArthur
Each reading below is measured for McArthur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcArthur runs about 171 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
MeasuredMcArthur 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 McArthur is in
McArthur sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at McArthur's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Shasta County is mostly Cascades. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in McArthur
Every plant below cleared McArthur's own zone 7a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McArthur?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 McArthur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McArthur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ED STAUB & SONS PETROLEUM INC.Brownfields · 1700 ft
- Ed Staub & Sons Petroleum, Inc (Fall River Mills Bulk Plant)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WILLIAM SCHMUNK DDS PCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Hiway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HIWAY GARAGE INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FALL RIVER HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HELENA AGRI ENTERPRISES LLC DBA HELENA CHEMICAL COMPANYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #16240Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- KG CARPENTER & SONS INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- HARBERT OIL CO INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Harbert Oil-CFN CardlockUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MOUNTAIN VALLEYS HEALTH CENTERS DBA FALL RIVER VALLEY HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McArthur'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 McArthur.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McArthur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McArthur, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of McArthur. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 McArthur
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 McArthur average
Your land is one point inside McArthur
Everything above resolves to McArthur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 641 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 McArthur Average
McArthur Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across McArthur
- ●One soil character for all of McArthur
- ●Frost dates read at McArthur's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McArthur's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McArthur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McArthur, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McArthur averages can't show:
We read public map data around McArthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McArthur average
How we know this about McArthur
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 McArthur’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 McArthur
When does frost risk typically end in McArthur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McArthur typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in McArthur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McArthur typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McArthur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McArthur sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 28, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McArthur?
The federal record around McArthur is light — 33 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McArthur?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McArthur's scale — its 7a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McArthur'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 McArthur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McArthur's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 641 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McArthur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McArthur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 12 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McArthur, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McArthur's boundary and the 641 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- McArthur sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McArthur's 641 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shasta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shasta 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 Shasta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McArthur's 641 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McArthur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 641 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 McArthur-wide figureread your own land →
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