Pike, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pike, 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 Pike 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 Pike — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pike — the short answer
Pike, California: USDA zone 8b, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Pike's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pike's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pike
Each reading below is measured for Pike itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPike runs about 268 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
MeasuredPike 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 Pike is in
Pike sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pike's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sierra County.
What Grows in Pike
Every plant below cleared Pike's own zone 8b and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pike?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Pike
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pike. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AlaskaMining · 1.1 mi
- Enterprise QtzMining · 1.5 mi
- Grizzley RidgeMining · 1.6 mi
- West DelhiMining · 1.6 mi
- Grizzley Ridge ClaimMining · 1.9 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- Fern LeafMining · 3.1 mi
- 018N008E02K001MNitrate · 3.3 mi
- Ironrite ClaimMining · 3.4 mi
- 018N009E27H001MNitrate · 3.7 mi
- GRIZZLY HILL SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- D.E. Luce & CoMining · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pike'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 Pike.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pike
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pike
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pike, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pike — Mining (61 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pike
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 Pike average
Your land is one point inside Pike
Everything above resolves to Pike as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Pike Average
Pike Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pike
- ●One soil character for all of Pike
- ●Frost dates read at Pike's scale: Mar 11 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pike's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pike
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pike, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pike averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pike — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pike average
How we know this about Pike
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 Pike’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 Pike
When does frost risk typically end in Pike?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pike typically lands around Mar 11, 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 Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Pike?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pike typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pike?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pike sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 20, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pike?
The federal record around Pike runs heavier than most — 106 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (61), the nearest Mining record about 1.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pike?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pike's scale — its 8b band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pike'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 Pike’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pike's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,766 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pike's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pike's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Dec 4 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pike, the closest Mining record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pike's boundary and the 2,766 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pike's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pike's 2,766 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sierra County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sierra 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 Sierra County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pike's 2,766 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pike you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,766 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.1 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 Pike-wide figureread your own land →