Red Bluff, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Red Bluff, 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 Red Bluff 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 Red Bluff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Bluff — the short answer
Red Bluff, California: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- 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
- City 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 Tehama County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Red Bluff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Bluff's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Bluff
Each reading below is measured for Red Bluff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRed Bluff runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Tehama County, the closest normal to Red Bluff) — 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
MeasuredRed Bluff 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 Red Bluff is in
Red Bluff sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Red Bluff's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tehama 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 Red Bluff
Every plant below cleared Red Bluff'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 Red Bluff?
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 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Red Bluff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Bluff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Circle 7 DaysUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CIRCLE 7 DAYSBrownfields · 700 ft
- TEHAMA COUNTY ADMINISTRATIONBrownfields · 850 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE #14473Brownfields · 900 ft
- One Stop Gas Station Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BOB'S TIRE CENTERBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MODERN CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 1700 ft
- USPS RED BLUFF CABrownfields · 1800 ft
- OWENS HEALTHCARE #5Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CITY OF RED BLUFF - FIRE DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- GREENVILLE RANCHERIA DENTAL CLINICBrownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Bluff'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 Red Bluff.
Total Sites
342
within ~10 miles of Red Bluff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Bluff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Bluff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Bluff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Red Bluff — Nitrate (136 sites) and Brownfields (179 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Red Bluff
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 Red Bluff average
Your land is one point inside Red Bluff
Everything above resolves to Red Bluff as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tehama County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Red Bluff Average
Red Bluff Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Red Bluff
- ●One soil character for all of Red Bluff
- ●Frost dates read at Red Bluff's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Bluff's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Bluff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Bluff, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Bluff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Bluff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Bluff average
How we know this about Red Bluff
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Red Bluff
When does frost risk typically end in Red Bluff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Bluff 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 Red Bluff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Bluff 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 Red Bluff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Bluff 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 Red Bluff?
The federal record around Red Bluff is a meaningful one — 342 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (179), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Red Bluff?
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 Red Bluff's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Bluff'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 Red Bluff’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Red Bluff's own scale — the 4,839 acres it covers and 342 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Bluff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 342 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Bluff, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Bluff's boundary and the 4,839 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Red Bluff sits in the Central California Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Red Bluff 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 Red Bluff's 4,839 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 Red Bluff's 4,839 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Bluff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,839 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Red Bluff-wide figureread your own land →