Rancho Tehama Reserve, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rancho Tehama Reserve, 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rancho Tehama Reserve — the short answer
Rancho Tehama Reserve, California: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- Tehama County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Tehama County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Rancho Tehama Reserve's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rancho Tehama Reserve's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rancho Tehama Reserve
Each reading below is measured for Rancho Tehama Reserve itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRancho Tehama Reserve runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Tehama County, the closest normal to Rancho Tehama Reserve) — 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
MeasuredRancho Tehama Reserve 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve is in
Rancho Tehama Reserve sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Rancho Tehama Reserve's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tehama County.
What Grows in Rancho Tehama Reserve
Every plant below cleared Rancho Tehama Reserve's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rancho Tehama Reserve?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rancho Tehama Reserve. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORTH VALLEY GAS WELL SERVICESBrownfields · 1300 ft
- 025N005W14L001MNitrate · 1.9 mi
- 025N005W14Q001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 025N005W23A001MNitrate · 2.1 mi
- G&K Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- G&K MARKETBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- MASAMI CATTLE RANCH, INCBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- RONALD HUMPHREYBrownfields · 5.0 mi
- 024N005W21E001MNitrate · 5.5 mi
- 024N005W20K001MNitrate · 5.7 mi
- Unnamed LocationMining · 5.8 mi
- 025N004W27F001MNitrate · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rancho Tehama Reserve'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 Rancho Tehama Reserve.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Rancho Tehama Reserve
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rancho Tehama Reserve
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rancho Tehama Reserve
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rancho Tehama Reserve, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Rancho Tehama Reserve. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rancho Tehama Reserve
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 Rancho Tehama Reserve average
Your land is one point inside Rancho Tehama Reserve
Everything above resolves to Rancho Tehama Reserve as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tehama 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve Average
Rancho Tehama Reserve Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Rancho Tehama Reserve
- ●One soil character for all of Rancho Tehama Reserve
- ●Frost dates read at Rancho Tehama Reserve's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rancho Tehama Reserve's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rancho Tehama Reserve
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rancho Tehama Reserve, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rancho Tehama Reserve averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rancho Tehama Reserve — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rancho Tehama Reserve average
How we know this about Rancho Tehama Reserve
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 Tehama 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve
When does frost risk typically end in Rancho Tehama Reserve?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Tehama Reserve typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 12.
When is the first frost in Rancho Tehama Reserve?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rancho Tehama Reserve typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rancho Tehama Reserve?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rancho Tehama Reserve sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 29, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rancho Tehama Reserve?
The federal record around Rancho Tehama Reserve is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rancho Tehama Reserve's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rancho Tehama Reserve'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 Rancho Tehama Reserve’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rancho Tehama Reserve's own scale — the 7,480 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rancho Tehama Reserve's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rancho Tehama Reserve, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rancho Tehama Reserve's boundary and the 7,480 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rancho Tehama Reserve's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rancho Tehama Reserve has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tehama County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rancho Tehama Reserve's 7,480 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tehama County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tehama 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 Tehama County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rancho Tehama Reserve's 7,480 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rancho Tehama Reserve you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,480 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Rancho Tehama Reserve-wide figureread your own land →