Tuttletown, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tuttletown, 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 Tuttletown 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 Tuttletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tuttletown — the short answer
Tuttletown, California: USDA zone 9a, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- Tuolumne County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Tuolumne County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Tuttletown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tuttletown's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tuttletown
Each reading below is measured for Tuttletown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTuttletown runs about 183 days between hard freezes (read from Tuolumne County, the closest normal to Tuttletown) — 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
MeasuredTuttletown 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 Tuttletown is in
Tuttletown sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Tuttletown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tuolumne County is mostly Sierra Nevada. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tuttletown
Plants matched to Tuttletown's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Tuttletown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Tuttletown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tuttletown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hard To FindMining · 0.9 mi
- MARKS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- lakeridge innUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PattersonMining · 1.7 mi
- INTERMOUNTAIN HELICOPTER INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- FOOTHILL SIERRA PEST CONTROLBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- LeadMining · 2.1 mi
- E&S GROUP LLC DBA BALD EAGLE AVIATIONBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- COLUMBIA AIRPORTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- PHI AIR MEDICAL LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- STANISLAUS NAT FORESTSuperfund · 2.1 mi
- TANKO BROS INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tuttletown'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 Tuttletown.
Total Sites
510
within ~10 miles of Tuttletown
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tuttletown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tuttletown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tuttletown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tuttletown — Mining (165 sites) and PFAS (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Tuttletown
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 Tuttletown average
Your land is one point inside Tuttletown
Everything above resolves to Tuttletown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tuolumne 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 Tuttletown Average
Tuttletown Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Tuttletown
- ●One soil character for all of Tuttletown
- ●Frost dates read at Tuttletown's scale: May 5 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tuttletown's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tuttletown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tuttletown, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tuttletown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tuttletown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tuttletown average
How we know this about Tuttletown
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 Tuolumne 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 Tuttletown
When does frost risk typically end in Tuttletown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tuttletown typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Tuttletown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tuttletown typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tuttletown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tuttletown sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Oct 21, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tuttletown?
The federal record around Tuttletown runs heavier than most — 510 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (296), the nearest Mining record about 0.9 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 Tuttletown?
From about Oct 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 Nov 4 (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 Nov 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tuttletown's scale — its 9a band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tuttletown'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 Tuttletown’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Tuttletown's own scale — the 4,705 acres it covers and 510 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tuttletown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 510 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tuttletown, the closest Mining record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tuttletown's boundary and the 4,705 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Tuttletown sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tuttletown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tuolumne County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tuttletown's 4,705 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tuolumne County
- The candidate plant list — California's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom California
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tuolumne 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 Tuolumne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tuttletown's 4,705 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tuttletown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,705 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.9 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 Tuttletown-wide figureread your own land →
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