Pine Grove, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pine Grove, 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 Grove 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 Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Grove — the short answer
Pine Grove, California: USDA zone 9b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Amador County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Pine Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Grove's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Grove
Each reading below is measured for Pine Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPine Grove runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Amador County, the closest normal to Pine Grove) — 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
MeasuredPine Grove 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 Pine Grove is in
Pine Grove sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pine Grove's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Amador County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Grove
Plants matched to Pine Grove's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Grove?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Pine Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 006N012E04J001MNitrate · 1600 ft
- Mountain King, Mountain Queen PittsMining · 1700 ft
- Frontier StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KDR ENTERPRISES DBA FRONTIER STATIONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PINE GROVE STATION - GOLDEN CHAIN ASSOCIATESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JACKSON TIRE-PINE GROVEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- GUYS SAW CENTERBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Pine Grove Stage StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AMADOR COUNTY WASTE MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ACES WASTE SERVICE INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Pine Grove UnitMining · 0.9 mi
- Black WonderMining · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Grove'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 Grove.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Grove — Mining (71 sites) and Brownfields (175 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Grove
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 Grove average
Your land is one point inside Pine Grove
Everything above resolves to Pine Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Amador County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Grove Average
Pine Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Pine Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Grove's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Grove's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Grove, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Grove average
How we know this about Pine Grove
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 Amador County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Grove typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Pine Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Grove typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Grove sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 25, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Grove?
The federal record around Pine Grove runs heavier than most — 298 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (175), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Pine Grove?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Grove's scale — its 9b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Grove'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 Grove’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Pine Grove's own scale — the 4,790 acres it covers and 298 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 298 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Grove, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Grove's boundary and the 4,790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Pine Grove sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pine Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Amador County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Grove's 4,790 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Amador County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Amador 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 Amador County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Grove's 4,790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,790 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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