Tracy, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tracy, 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 Tracy 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 Tracy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tracy — the short answer
Tracy, California: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- San Joaquin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- San Joaquin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- San Joaquin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 17K 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 San Joaquin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Tracy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tracy's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tracy
Each reading below is measured for Tracy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTracy runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from San Joaquin County, the closest normal to Tracy) — 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
MeasuredTracy 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 Tracy is in
Tracy sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Tracy's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Joaquin County.
What Grows in Tracy
Every plant below cleared Tracy's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tracy?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Tracy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tracy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DISNEYLAND RESORT A DIVISION OF WALT DISNEY PARKS AND RESORTS US INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- SVIRK BROS TRANSPORT INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MH AMIN DHNYA TRANSPORTBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CENTRAL VALLEY TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DELTA EXPRESS INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- WILLIAMS MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WEST-WINDS CHEMICAL TRANSPORTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- GREWAL FREIGHTLINES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 002S005E29D001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 002S005E32F001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- CALTRANSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ALANDA TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tracy'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 Tracy.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tracy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tracy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tracy, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 625 sites within ~10 miles of Tracy. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Tracy
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 Tracy average
Your land is one point inside Tracy
Everything above resolves to Tracy as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 17K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Joaquin 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 Tracy Average
Tracy Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Tracy
- ●One soil character for all of Tracy
- ●Frost dates read at Tracy's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tracy's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tracy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tracy, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tracy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tracy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tracy average
How we know this about Tracy
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 San Joaquin 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 Tracy
When does frost risk typically end in Tracy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tracy typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Tracy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tracy typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tracy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tracy sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Nov 27, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tracy?
The federal record around Tracy is a meaningful one — 895 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (625), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Tracy?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tracy's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tracy'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 Tracy’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tracy's own scale — the 16,856 acres it covers and 895 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tracy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 895 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tracy, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tracy's boundary and the 16,856 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tracy's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tracy has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Joaquin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tracy's 16,856 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Joaquin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Joaquin 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 San Joaquin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tracy's 16,856 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tracy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,856 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 Tracy-wide figureread your own land →