Pine Flat, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pine Flat, 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 Pine Flat 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 Pine Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Flat — the short answer
Pine Flat, California: USDA zone 8b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 639 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 639 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 Pine Flat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Flat's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Flat
Each reading below is measured for Pine Flat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Flat runs about 230 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
MeasuredPine Flat 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 Pine Flat is in
Pine Flat sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Pine Flat's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tulare County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Flat
Every plant below cleared Pine Flat's own zone 8b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Flat?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Pine Flat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Flat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- White River ClaimsMining · 1.8 mi
- White River ProspectMining · 1.8 mi
- 023S031E31N001MNitrate · 2.0 mi
- MJ BATESBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- 023S030E35H001MNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Big Oscar Antimony DepositMining · 9.1 mi
- 023S032E14Q002MNitrate · 9.2 mi
- Susie Q ProspectMining · 9.4 mi
- Lucky Hit DepositMining · 9.8 mi
- GLENNVILLE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 9.8 mi
- Major MineMining · 9.9 mi
Measured from Pine Flat'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 Pine Flat.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Flat
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Flat
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 Pine Flat average
Your land is one point inside Pine Flat
Everything above resolves to Pine Flat as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 639 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 Pine Flat Average
Pine Flat Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pine Flat
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Flat
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Flat's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Flat's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Flat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Flat, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Flat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Flat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Flat average
How we know this about Pine Flat
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 Pine Flat’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 Pine Flat
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Flat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Flat typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Pine Flat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Flat typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Flat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Flat sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Nov 8, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Flat?
The federal record around Pine Flat is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (7), the nearest Mining record about 1.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pine Flat?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Flat's scale — its 8b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Flat'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 Pine Flat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Flat's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 639 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Flat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Flat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 22 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Flat, the closest Mining record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Flat's boundary and the 639 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine Flat sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Flat's 639 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 Pine Flat's 639 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Flat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 639 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.8 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 Pine Flat-wide figureread your own land →