Mendota, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mendota, 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 Mendota 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 Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mendota — the short answer
Mendota, California: USDA zone 9a, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- Fresno County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Fresno County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Mendota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mendota's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mendota
Each reading below is measured for Mendota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMendota runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from Fresno County, the closest normal to Mendota) — 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
MeasuredMendota sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Mendota is in
Mendota sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Mendota's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fresno County.
What Grows in Mendota
Plants matched to Mendota's USDA zones 9a, 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 Mendota?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 Mendota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mendota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CERVANTES AUTOBrownfields · 750 ft
- ALEX AUTO DIAGNOSTICSBrownfields · 750 ft
- VILLAMAR MOTORS & TRANSBrownfields · 800 ft
- AVITIAS TRUCK & TRAILER REPAIRBrownfields · 950 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14278Brownfields · 1200 ft
- CRESCO LABSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JCC TRANSPORTBrownfields · 1300 ft
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE CO (DBA AT&T CA)Brownfields · 1400 ft
- RAMON'S TIRE & AUTO SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FASTRIP 3365Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JACO HILL COMPANY #365 FASTRIP #37Brownfields · 1500 ft
- MENDOTA FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mendota'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 Mendota.
Total Sites
623
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mendota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mendota, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 482 sites within ~10 miles of Mendota. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mendota
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 Mendota average
Your land is one point inside Mendota
Everything above resolves to Mendota as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fresno 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 Mendota Average
Mendota Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mendota
- ●One soil character for all of Mendota
- ●Frost dates read at Mendota's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mendota's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mendota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mendota, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mendota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mendota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mendota average
How we know this about Mendota
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 Fresno 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 Mendota
When does frost risk typically end in Mendota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Mendota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mendota typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mendota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mendota sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Nov 27, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mendota?
The federal record around Mendota is a meaningful one — 623 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (482), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Mendota?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mendota's scale — its 9a band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mendota'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 Mendota’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Mendota's own scale — the 2,109 acres it covers and 623 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mendota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 623 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mendota, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mendota's boundary and the 2,109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Mendota's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mendota has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fresno County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mendota's 2,109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fresno 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 Fresno 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 Fresno County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mendota's 2,109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mendota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Mendota-wide figureread your own land →