Tres Pinos, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tres Pinos, 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 Tres Pinos 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 Tres Pinos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tres Pinos — the short answer
Tres Pinos, California: USDA zone 9a, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- San Benito County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- San Benito County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- San Benito County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Benito County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Tres Pinos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tres Pinos's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tres Pinos
Each reading below is measured for Tres Pinos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTres Pinos runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from San Benito County, the closest normal to Tres Pinos) — 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
MeasuredTres Pinos 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 Tres Pinos is in
Tres Pinos sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Tres Pinos's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Benito County.
What Grows in Tres Pinos
Every plant below cleared Tres Pinos's own zone 9a and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tres Pinos?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (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. 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 Tres Pinos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tres Pinos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACIFIC BELL TELEPHONE COMPANYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- PACIFIC BELLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Tres Pinos Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GEORGIA DRAKEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 013S006E21DU01MNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 013S006E20R001MNitrate · 1.2 mi
- 013S006E27N001MNitrate · 1.5 mi
- GRANITE ROCK CO. - HOLLISTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- AGCO HAY LLCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- SAN BENITO COUNTY INTEGRATED WASTE MGMTBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- WASTE CONNECTIONSBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- JOHN SMITH ROAD CLASS III LANDFILLBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tres Pinos'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 Tres Pinos.
Total Sites
301
within ~10 miles of Tres Pinos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tres Pinos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tres Pinos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tres Pinos, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tres Pinos — Brownfields (221 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tres Pinos
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 Tres Pinos average
Your land is one point inside Tres Pinos
Everything above resolves to Tres Pinos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Benito 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 Tres Pinos Average
Tres Pinos Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Tres Pinos
- ●One soil character for all of Tres Pinos
- ●Frost dates read at Tres Pinos's scale: Feb 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tres Pinos's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tres Pinos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tres Pinos, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tres Pinos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tres Pinos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tres Pinos average
How we know this about Tres Pinos
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 San Benito 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 Tres Pinos
When does frost risk typically end in Tres Pinos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tres Pinos typically lands around Feb 26, 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 Mar 19.
When is the first frost in Tres Pinos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tres Pinos 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 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tres Pinos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tres Pinos sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 29, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tres Pinos?
The federal record around Tres Pinos is a meaningful one — 301 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (221), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Tres Pinos?
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 Tres Pinos's scale — its 9a band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tres Pinos'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 Tres Pinos’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tres Pinos's own scale — the 2,305 acres it covers and 301 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tres Pinos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 301 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tres Pinos, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tres Pinos's boundary and the 2,305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tres Pinos's own centroid, the Central California Foothills and Coastal MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tres Pinos has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Benito County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tres Pinos's 2,305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Benito County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Benito 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 Benito County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tres Pinos's 2,305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tres Pinos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Tres Pinos-wide figureread your own land →