Topaz, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Topaz, 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 Topaz 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 Topaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Topaz — the short answer
Topaz, California: USDA zone 7a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Topaz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Topaz's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Topaz
Each reading below is measured for Topaz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTopaz runs about 156 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
MeasuredTopaz 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 Topaz is in
Topaz sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Topaz's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mono County.
What Grows in Topaz
Every plant below cleared Topaz's own zone 7a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Topaz?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Topaz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Topaz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Coleville AreaMining · 3.2 mi
- CassonMining · 3.4 mi
- 106 N10 E22 28DD 2 Douglas County - MarinaNitrate · 4.1 mi
- AntimonyMining · 4.3 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32BDBA2Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32BDBB1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32BADA1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32BAAD1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32ABBB2Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- Topaz Lead-Silver MineMining · 4.4 mi
- 106 N10 E22 32BAAB2Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- 106 N10 E22 29DCCC3Nitrate · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Topaz'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 Topaz.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Topaz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Topaz
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Topaz, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Topaz — Mining (29 sites) and Nitrate (52 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Topaz
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 Topaz average
Your land is one point inside Topaz
Everything above resolves to Topaz as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Topaz Average
Topaz Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Topaz
- ●One soil character for all of Topaz
- ●Frost dates read at Topaz's scale: May 7 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Topaz's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Topaz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Topaz, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Topaz averages can't show:
We read public map data around Topaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Topaz average
How we know this about Topaz
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 Topaz’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 Topaz
When does frost risk typically end in Topaz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Topaz typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Topaz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Topaz typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Topaz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Topaz sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 26, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Topaz?
The federal record around Topaz runs heavier than most — 92 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Mining record about 3.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Topaz?
From about Sep 10 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 Oct 10 (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 Oct 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Topaz's scale — its 7a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Topaz'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 Topaz’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Topaz's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,793 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Topaz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Topaz's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 10 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Topaz, the closest Mining record about 3.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Topaz's boundary and the 7,793 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Topaz's own centroid, the Central Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Topaz's 7,793 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mono County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mono 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 Mono County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Topaz's 7,793 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Topaz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,793 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 3.2 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 Topaz-wide figureread your own land →