Orcutt, 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 Orcutt, 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 Orcutt 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 Orcutt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Orcutt — the short answer
Orcutt, California: USDA zone 9b, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 9b is Orcutt's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orcutt's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orcutt
Each reading below is measured for Orcutt itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrcutt runs about 314 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredOrcutt 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 Orcutt is in
Orcutt sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Orcutt's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Barbara County.
What Grows in Orcutt
Every plant below cleared Orcutt's own zone 9b and its 314-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orcutt?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Orcutt
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orcutt. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 009N034W11Q001SNitrate · 550 ft
- DOLLAR TREE #07178Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY # 9394Brownfields · 1300 ft
- AUTOZONE #4796Brownfields · 1400 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #3662Brownfields · 1500 ft
- SHELL STATION NO 204-6972-1805Brownfields · 1700 ft
- SANTA MARIA 76Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORP.Brownfields · 1800 ft
- S L O GAS & MARTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- OAK KNOLL MOBILBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Circle K Stores Inc. Site #2211297Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CIRCLE K STORES INC DBA CIRCLE K STORE 2211297Brownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orcutt'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 Orcutt.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orcutt
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orcutt
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orcutt, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orcutt — Brownfields (787 sites) and Nitrate (398 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Orcutt
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 Orcutt average
Your land is one point inside Orcutt
Everything above resolves to Orcutt as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Orcutt Average
Orcutt Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Orcutt
- ●One soil character for all of Orcutt
- ●Frost dates read at Orcutt's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orcutt's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orcutt
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orcutt, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orcutt averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orcutt — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orcutt average
How we know this about Orcutt
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 Orcutt’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 Orcutt
When does frost risk typically end in Orcutt?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orcutt typically lands around Feb 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Orcutt?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orcutt 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 314 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orcutt?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orcutt sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Nov 28, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orcutt?
The federal record around Orcutt is a meaningful one — 1,243 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (787), the nearest Nitrate 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 Orcutt?
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 Orcutt's scale — its 9b band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orcutt'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 Orcutt’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Orcutt's own scale — its own ~314-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,926 acres it covers and 1,243 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orcutt's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orcutt's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 1 and Dec 12 and the ~314-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,243 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orcutt, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orcutt's boundary and the 6,926 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orcutt's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orcutt's 6,926 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Barbara County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Barbara 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 Santa Barbara County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orcutt's 6,926 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orcutt you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,926 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Orcutt-wide figureread your own land →
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