Tulelake, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tulelake, 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 Tulelake 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 Tulelake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tulelake — the short answer
Tulelake, California: USDA zone 6b, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 262 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 262 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 6b is Tulelake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tulelake's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tulelake
Each reading below is measured for Tulelake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTulelake runs about 141 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
MeasuredTulelake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Tulelake is in
Tulelake sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Tulelake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Siskiyou County is mostly Klamath Mountains/California High North Coast Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tulelake
Every plant below cleared Tulelake's own zone 6b and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tulelake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Tulelake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tulelake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALTRANS 02-2H1804Brownfields · 150 ft
- MALIN CHRISTIAN CENTER, INC.Superfund · 550 ft
- MOUNTAIN VALLEYS HEALTH CENTERS DBA TULELAKE HEALTH CENTERBrownfields · 750 ft
- 10-A DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 1000 ft
- TULELAKE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 048N004E35L002MNitrate · 2000 ft
- SIMPLOT SOILBUILDERSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- STAUNTON FARMS SHOP, DBA STAUNTON FARMSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- MODOC COUNTY/EMERG RESPONSE ONLYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- SISKIYOU COUNTY- MOUNTAIN FIREBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- KLAMATHON FIREBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- MACYS FLYING SERVBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tulelake'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 Tulelake.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Tulelake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tulelake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tulelake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Tulelake
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 Tulelake average
Your land is one point inside Tulelake
Everything above resolves to Tulelake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 262 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 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 Tulelake Average
Tulelake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tulelake
- ●One soil character for all of Tulelake
- ●Frost dates read at Tulelake's scale: May 12 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tulelake's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tulelake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tulelake, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tulelake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tulelake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tulelake average
How we know this about Tulelake
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 Tulelake’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 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 Tulelake
When does frost risk typically end in Tulelake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tulelake typically lands around May 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Tulelake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tulelake typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tulelake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tulelake sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 12 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 2 to Sep 16, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tulelake?
The federal record around Tulelake is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (25), 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 Tulelake?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Tulelake 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 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 12 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Tulelake's scale — its 6b band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tulelake'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 Tulelake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tulelake's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 262 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tulelake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tulelake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 12 and Sep 30 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tulelake, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tulelake's boundary and the 262 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tulelake sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tulelake's 262 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Siskiyou County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Siskiyou 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 Siskiyou County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tulelake's 262 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tulelake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 262 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 Tulelake-wide figureread your own land →
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