Soda Springs, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Soda Springs, 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 Soda Springs 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 Soda Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Soda Springs — the short answer
Soda Springs, California: USDA zone 7a, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 216 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 216 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 7a is Soda Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Soda Springs's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Soda Springs's own 30-year record measures about 147 days between 28°F killing freezes — 91 days shorter than Nevada County's ~238. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Soda Springs's ~147-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Soda Springs
Each reading below is measured for Soda Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSoda Springs runs about 147 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSoda Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Soda Springs is in
Soda Springs sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Soda Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nevada County.
What Grows in Soda Springs
Every plant below cleared Soda Springs's own zone 7a and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Soda Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Soda Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Soda Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DONNER SPITZ INN INCBrownfields · 450 ft
- SERENE LAKES ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1600 ft
- DONNER SUMMIT GASBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Donner Summit GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 017N014E22C001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- DONNER SUMMIT PUBLIC UTILITY DISTRICTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- AUBURN SKI CLUBBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SIERRA LAKES COUNTY WATER DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NYACO INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- KINGVALE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TAHOE TRUCKEE UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- BOREAL RIDGE CORPBrownfields · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Soda Springs'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 Soda Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Soda Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Soda Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Soda Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Soda Springs — Mining (24 sites) and Brownfields (75 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.
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 Soda Springs
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 Soda Springs average
Your land is one point inside Soda Springs
Everything above resolves to Soda Springs as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Soda Springs Average
Soda Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Soda Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Soda Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Soda Springs's scale: May 23 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Soda Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Soda Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Soda Springs, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Soda Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Soda Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Soda Springs average
How we know this about Soda Springs
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 Soda Springs’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 Soda Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Soda Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Soda Springs typically lands around May 23, 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 Jun 13.
When is the first frost in Soda Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Soda Springs typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Soda Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Soda Springs sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Oct 3, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Soda Springs?
The federal record around Soda Springs is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (75), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Soda Springs?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Soda Springs rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 175 to 203 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Soda Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Soda Springs'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 Soda Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Soda Springs's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 216 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Soda Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Soda Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Oct 17 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Soda Springs, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Soda Springs's boundary and the 216 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Soda Springs's own centroid, the Sierra NevadaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Soda Springs's 216 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nevada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nevada 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 Nevada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Soda Springs's 216 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Soda Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 216 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Soda Springs-wide figureread your own land →