South Dos Palos, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Dos Palos, 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 South Dos Palos 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 South Dos Palos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Dos Palos — the short answer
South Dos Palos, California: USDA zone 9a, about 318 days between hard freezes, across 984 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- Merced County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Merced County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~318
- Merced County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 984 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 Merced County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is South Dos Palos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Dos Palos's 318-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Dos Palos
Each reading below is measured for South Dos Palos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSouth Dos Palos runs about 318 days between hard freezes (read from Merced County, the closest normal to South Dos Palos) — 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
MeasuredSouth Dos Palos sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 South Dos Palos is in
South Dos Palos sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at South Dos Palos's own centroid rather than borrowed from Merced County.
What Grows in South Dos Palos
Every plant below cleared South Dos Palos's own zone 9a and its 318-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Dos Palos?
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 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near South Dos Palos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Dos Palos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MERCED COUNTY DEPT OF PUBLIC HEALTHBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PSC T 303A 14Brownfields · 1400 ft
- ZAPATA TRANSPORTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CITY OF DOS PALOSPFAS · 0.5 mi
- Chic's Grocery - BW # 97Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AMELIA SEPULVEDABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF DOS PALOSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KODA FARMS, INC.Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- FRANK FUENTESBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- DIMART POWERSTROKEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- EXXONMOBIL OIL CORP 99DPLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- BOB'S HOWARD TIREBrownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Dos Palos'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 South Dos Palos.
Total Sites
482
within ~10 miles of South Dos Palos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Dos Palos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Dos Palos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Dos Palos, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 374 sites within ~10 miles of South Dos Palos. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 South Dos Palos
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 South Dos Palos average
Your land is one point inside South Dos Palos
Everything above resolves to South Dos Palos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 984 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Merced 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 South Dos Palos Average
South Dos Palos Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across South Dos Palos
- ●One soil character for all of South Dos Palos
- ●Frost dates read at South Dos Palos's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Dos Palos's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Dos Palos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Dos Palos, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Dos Palos averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Dos Palos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Dos Palos average
How we know this about South Dos Palos
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 Merced 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 South Dos Palos
When does frost risk typically end in South Dos Palos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Dos Palos typically lands around Jan 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 Feb 11.
When is the first frost in South Dos Palos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Dos Palos typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 318 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Dos Palos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Dos Palos sees about 318 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Nov 21, about 283 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Dos Palos?
The federal record around South Dos Palos is a meaningful one — 482 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (374), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 South Dos Palos?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at South Dos Palos's scale — its 9a band and its 318-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Dos Palos'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 South Dos Palos’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at South Dos Palos's own scale — the 984 acres it covers and 482 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Dos Palos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 482 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Dos Palos, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Dos Palos's boundary and the 984 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~318-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Dos Palos's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — South Dos Palos has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Merced County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Dos Palos's 984 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Merced County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Merced 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 Merced County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Dos Palos's 984 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Dos Palos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 984 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 South Dos Palos-wide figureread your own land →