Moreno Valley, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moreno Valley, 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 Moreno Valley 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 Moreno Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moreno Valley — the short answer
Moreno Valley, California: USDA zone 9b, about 303 days between hard freezes, across 33K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~303
- Riverside County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 33K 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 Riverside County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Moreno Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moreno Valley's 303-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moreno Valley
Each reading below is measured for Moreno Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMoreno Valley runs about 303 days between hard freezes (read from Riverside County, the closest normal to Moreno Valley) — 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
MeasuredMoreno Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Moreno Valley is in
Moreno Valley sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Moreno Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Riverside County is mostly Sonoran Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Moreno Valley
Every plant below cleared Moreno Valley's own zone 9b and its 303-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moreno Valley?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Moreno Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moreno Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVID LANTZBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- COUNTY OF RIVERSIDE FLEET SERVICESBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MVUSD-VALLEY VIEW HSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- RIVERSIDE COUNTY DEPT OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH HAZARDOUS MATERIALS BRANBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Riverside University Health System - Medical CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RUHS - SOLUTIONS PHARMACYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CAMPUS PROFESSIONAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SMART & FINAL #719Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- DOLLAR TREE #05497Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- ELDER PUMP PLANTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MORENO 2 PUMP PLANTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #872Brownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moreno Valley'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 Moreno Valley.
Total Sites
2,031
within ~10 miles of Moreno Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moreno Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moreno Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moreno Valley, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,709 sites within ~10 miles of Moreno Valley. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Moreno Valley
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 Moreno Valley average
Your land is one point inside Moreno Valley
Everything above resolves to Moreno Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 33K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Riverside 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 Moreno Valley Average
Moreno Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Moreno Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Moreno Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Moreno Valley's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moreno Valley's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moreno Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moreno Valley, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moreno Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moreno Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moreno Valley average
How we know this about Moreno Valley
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 Riverside 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 Moreno Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Moreno Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moreno Valley typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 6.
When is the first frost in Moreno Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moreno Valley typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 303 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moreno Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moreno Valley sees about 303 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 29, about 268 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moreno Valley?
The federal record around Moreno Valley is a meaningful one — 2,031 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,709), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Moreno Valley?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moreno Valley's scale — its 9b band and its 303-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moreno Valley'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 Moreno Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Moreno Valley's own scale — the 32,838 acres it covers and 2,031 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moreno Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,031 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moreno Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moreno Valley's boundary and the 32,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~303-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Moreno Valley 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 — Moreno Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Riverside County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moreno Valley's 32,838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Riverside County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Riverside 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 Riverside County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moreno Valley's 32,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moreno Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 32,838 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Moreno Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Growing region
Nearby growing guides