Mount Shasta, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Shasta, 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 Mount Shasta 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 Mount Shasta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Shasta — the short answer
Mount Shasta, California: USDA zone 7b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 7b is Mount Shasta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Shasta's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Shasta
Each reading below is measured for Mount Shasta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Shasta runs about 206 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMount Shasta sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Mount Shasta is in
Mount Shasta sits in the Cascades — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mount Shasta's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Siskiyou County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mount Shasta
Every plant below cleared Mount Shasta's own zone 7b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Shasta?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Mount Shasta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Shasta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DBA POINT S MT. SHASTABrownfields · 1100 ft
- MT. SHASTA, CITY OFPFAS · 1600 ft
- ANGELA FERRARI DDS INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CRYSTAL GEYSER WATER COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SISKIYOU MEDICAL GROUPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- ALLEN KINGBrownfields · 2000 ft
- BROOKS COMPLETE AUTO REPAIR INC DBA THE MT SHASTA PIT STOPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SISSON SCHOOLBrownfields · 2200 ft
- MERCY MEDICAL CENTER MOUNT SHASTABrownfields · 2200 ft
- Cross Petroleum Warehouse/Cardlock and Truck Loading FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- CROSS PETROLEUMBrownfields · 2200 ft
- GENE ERICKSON TRUCKING, INC.Brownfields · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Shasta'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 Mount Shasta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Shasta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Shasta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Shasta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Shasta — Mining (26 sites) and Superfund (4 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mount Shasta
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 Mount Shasta average
Your land is one point inside Mount Shasta
Everything above resolves to Mount Shasta 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 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 Mount Shasta Average
Mount Shasta Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Mount Shasta
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Shasta
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Shasta's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Shasta's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Shasta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Shasta, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Shasta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Shasta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Shasta average
How we know this about Mount Shasta
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 Mount Shasta’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 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 Mount Shasta
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Shasta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Shasta typically lands around Apr 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in Mount Shasta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Shasta typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Shasta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Shasta sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 22, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Shasta?
The federal record around Mount Shasta is a meaningful one — 172 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (119), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Mount Shasta?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Shasta's scale — its 7b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Shasta'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 Mount Shasta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Shasta's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,413 acres it covers and 172 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Shasta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Shasta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 5 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 172 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Shasta, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Shasta's boundary and the 2,413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mount Shasta sits in the Cascades — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mount Shasta's 2,413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Siskiyou County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Siskiyou 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 Siskiyou County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Shasta's 2,413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Shasta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,413 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Mount Shasta-wide figureread your own land →
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