Palmdale, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Palmdale, 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 Palmdale 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 Palmdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Palmdale — the short answer
Palmdale, California: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 68K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 68K 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 9a is Palmdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palmdale's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palmdale
Each reading below is measured for Palmdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalmdale runs about 291 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
MeasuredPalmdale 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 Palmdale is in
Palmdale sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Palmdale's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Los Angeles County is mostly Southern California/Northern Baja Coast. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Palmdale
Every plant below cleared Palmdale's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palmdale?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 1 — 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 Palmdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palmdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COMMODITY TRUCKING ACQUISITION DBA TRI COUNTY TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 700 ft
- KENNEDY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS, INC.Brownfields · 2500 ft
- 006N012W24F001SNitrate · 2500 ft
- PRINTING ETCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FIRST STUDENT INC #12695Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- STORER TRANSPORTATION SCHOOL AND CONTRACT SERVICE PALMDALEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- J&P CONSTRUCTION CLEAN UPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LUSK QUALITY MACHINE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LUSK QUALITY MACHINE PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- SANDRA BARCENA DBA ENGINE LINE MACHINE SHOPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ALL-PRO AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- VI BROTHERS CORP DBA ENGINE LINE MACHINE SHOPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palmdale'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 Palmdale.
Total Sites
1,507
within ~10 miles of Palmdale
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palmdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palmdale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palmdale, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,056 sites within ~10 miles of Palmdale. 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 Palmdale
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 Palmdale average
Your land is one point inside Palmdale
Everything above resolves to Palmdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 68K 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 Palmdale Average
Palmdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Palmdale
- ●One soil character for all of Palmdale
- ●Frost dates read at Palmdale's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palmdale's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palmdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palmdale, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palmdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palmdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palmdale average
How we know this about Palmdale
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 Palmdale’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 Palmdale
When does frost risk typically end in Palmdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palmdale 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 Palmdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palmdale typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palmdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palmdale sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 17, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palmdale?
The federal record around Palmdale is a meaningful one — 1,507 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,056), 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 Palmdale?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palmdale's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palmdale'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 Palmdale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palmdale's own scale — its own ~291-day season between 28°F freezes, the 67,881 acres it covers and 1,507 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palmdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palmdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 13 and Dec 1 and the ~291-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,507 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palmdale, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palmdale's boundary and the 67,881 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Palmdale sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palmdale's 67,881 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Los Angeles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Los Angeles 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 Los Angeles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palmdale's 67,881 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palmdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 67,881 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 Palmdale-wide figureread your own land →