Quincy, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Quincy, 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 Quincy 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 Quincy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Quincy — the short answer
Quincy, California: USDA zone 7b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- 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 7b is Quincy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quincy's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quincy
Each reading below is measured for Quincy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQuincy runs about 199 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredQuincy sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Quincy is in
Quincy sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Quincy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Plumas County.
What Grows in Quincy
Every plant below cleared Quincy's own zone 7b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quincy?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Quincy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quincy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUPONT POWERTOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Chevron-QuincyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- QUINCY ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Fuel Star #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FUEL STAR #2Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- QUINCY CHEVRONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- QUINCY BULKPLANTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WARNER CHEVRONBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- QUINCY FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MICHAEL HERNDON DDSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FRANK'S GARAGEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 024N009E15K001MNitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quincy'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 Quincy.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Quincy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quincy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quincy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quincy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Quincy — Mining (54 sites) and Superfund (4 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Quincy
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 Quincy average
Your land is one point inside Quincy
Everything above resolves to Quincy 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 Quincy Average
Quincy Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Quincy
- ●One soil character for all of Quincy
- ●Frost dates read at Quincy's scale: Apr 22 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quincy's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quincy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quincy, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quincy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quincy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quincy average
How we know this about Quincy
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 Quincy’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 Quincy
When does frost risk typically end in Quincy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quincy typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Quincy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quincy typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quincy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quincy sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 24, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quincy?
The federal record around Quincy is a meaningful one — 135 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (66), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Quincy?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Quincy's scale — its 7b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quincy'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 Quincy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Quincy's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,703 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quincy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quincy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Nov 7 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quincy, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quincy's boundary and the 2,703 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Quincy's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quincy's 2,703 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Plumas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Plumas 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 Plumas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quincy's 2,703 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quincy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,703 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Quincy-wide figureread your own land →