Needles, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Needles, 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 Needles 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 Needles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Needles — the short answer
Needles, California: USDA zone 10a, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 20K 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 San Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Needles's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Needles's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Needles
Each reading below is measured for Needles itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNeedles runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Needles) — 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
MeasuredNeedles sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Needles is in
Needles sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Needles's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Bernardino County.
What Grows in Needles
Plants matched to Needles's USDA zones 10a, 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 Needles?
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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Needles
Survey cells within 31 miles of Needles checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 186 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Needles
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Needles. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- COLORADO RIVER MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COLORADO RIVER MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- NEEDLES DSPL SITESuperfund · 1.4 mi
- CALTRANS DISTRICT 8 NEEDLESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- A&G TOWING & STORAGE, INC.Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- California Highway Patrol NEEDLES #834Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL #834 NEEDLESBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Southern California Gas Company: Needles BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAS COMPANY - NEEDLESBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #16860Brownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Needles'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 Needles.
Total Sites
141
within ~10 miles of Needles
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Needles
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Needles
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Needles, Mining runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Needles. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Needles
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 Needles average
Your land is one point inside Needles
Everything above resolves to Needles as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 20K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino 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 Needles Average
Needles Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Needles
- ●One soil character for all of Needles
- ●Frost dates read at Needles's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Needles's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Needles
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Needles, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Needles averages can't show:
We read public map data around Needles — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Needles average
How we know this about Needles
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 San Bernardino 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 Needles
When does frost risk typically end in Needles?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Needles typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Needles?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Needles typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Needles?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Needles sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Needles?
The federal record around Needles is a meaningful one — 141 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 I protect my plants from frost in Needles?
From about Nov 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 Dec 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 Dec 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Needles's scale — its 10a band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Needles'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 Needles’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Needles's own scale — the 19,570 acres it covers and 141 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Needles's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 141 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Needles, the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Needles's boundary and the 19,570 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Needles's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Needles checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Needles has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Needles's 19,570 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Needles's 19,570 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Needles you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,570 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.4 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 Needles-wide figureread your own land →
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