Pierpoint, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pierpoint, 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 Pierpoint 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 Pierpoint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pierpoint — the short answer
Pierpoint, California: USDA zone 8b, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 261 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 261 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 8b is Pierpoint's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pierpoint's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Pierpoint's own 30-year record measures about 216 days between 28°F killing freezes — 80 days shorter than Tulare County's ~296. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Pierpoint's ~216-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pierpoint
Each reading below is measured for Pierpoint itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPierpoint runs about 216 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
MeasuredPierpoint sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pierpoint is in
Pierpoint sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pierpoint's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tulare County.
What Grows in Pierpoint
Every plant below cleared Pierpoint's own zone 8b and its 216-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pierpoint?
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 Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Pierpoint
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pierpoint. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 020S031E33M001MNitrate · 1000 ft
- McgeorgeMining · 2.8 mi
- Arsenic and Soda SpringsMining · 2.8 mi
- Elder BerryMining · 2.8 mi
- Iron CappingMining · 3.4 mi
- PG&E TULE HYDRO PLANTBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- Iron Capping GroupMining · 3.6 mi
- Barber-WittMining · 4.1 mi
- Thunder Shower & Buckhead ZincMining · 5.1 mi
- Thunder Shower and Buckhead ZincMining · 5.1 mi
- Mountain View MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Elster ClaimMining · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pierpoint'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 Pierpoint.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pierpoint
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pierpoint, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Pierpoint. 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 Pierpoint
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 Pierpoint average
Your land is one point inside Pierpoint
Everything above resolves to Pierpoint as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Pierpoint Average
Pierpoint Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pierpoint
- ●One soil character for all of Pierpoint
- ●Frost dates read at Pierpoint's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pierpoint's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pierpoint
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pierpoint, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pierpoint averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pierpoint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pierpoint average
How we know this about Pierpoint
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 Pierpoint’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 Pierpoint
When does frost risk typically end in Pierpoint?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pierpoint typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Pierpoint?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pierpoint typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 216 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pierpoint?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pierpoint sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Nov 5, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pierpoint?
The federal record around Pierpoint is a meaningful one — 38 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (28), the nearest Nitrate 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 Pierpoint?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pierpoint's scale — its 8b band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pierpoint'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 Pierpoint’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pierpoint's own scale — its own ~216-day season between 28°F freezes, the 261 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pierpoint's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pierpoint's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 19 and the ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pierpoint, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pierpoint's boundary and the 261 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pierpoint's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pierpoint's 261 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tulare County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tulare 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 Tulare County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pierpoint's 261 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pierpoint you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 261 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Pierpoint-wide figureread your own land →
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