Upland, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect avocado, meyer lemon, tomato, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Upland, 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 Upland 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 Upland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Upland — the short answer
Upland, California: USDA zone 10a, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- San Bernardino County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Bernardino County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Upland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Upland's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Upland
Each reading below is measured for Upland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUpland runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from San Bernardino County, the closest normal to Upland) — 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
MeasuredUpland sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Upland is in
Upland sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Upland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Bernardino County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Upland
Plants matched to Upland's USDA zones 10a, 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 Upland?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Upland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Upland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MANUEL PEREZBrownfields · 750 ft
- PAUL CHENBrownfields · 1600 ft
- JASON CARNEYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- JULIE EMRICHBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CLIFTON SANBORNBrownfields · 1900 ft
- SCOTT MCCLAREBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MIKE SHEEHANBrownfields · 2000 ft
- VALERIA STRASZEWSKIBrownfields · 2000 ft
- MOLLY BROUSEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- ALBERT MONTEZ DE OCABrownfields · 2600 ft
- MARK ORLOSKIBrownfields · 2600 ft
- JAMES HANLINBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Upland'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 Upland.
Total Sites
6,047
within ~10 miles of Upland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
34 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Upland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Upland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Upland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Upland — Brownfields (5,319 sites) and CAFO (61 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Upland
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 Upland average
Your land is one point inside Upland
Everything above resolves to Upland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Bernardino 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 Upland Average
Upland Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Upland
- ●One soil character for all of Upland
- ●Frost dates read at Upland's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Upland's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Upland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Upland, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Upland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Upland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Upland average
How we know this about Upland
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 Bernardino 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 Upland
When does frost risk typically end in Upland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Upland typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Upland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Upland typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Upland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Upland sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Nov 28, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Upland?
The federal record around Upland is a meaningful one — 6,047 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (5,319), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Upland?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Upland's scale — its 10a band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Upland'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 Upland’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Upland's own scale — the 9,974 acres it covers and 6,047 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Upland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6,047 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Upland, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Upland's boundary and the 9,974 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Upland sits in the Southern California/Northern Baja Coast — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Upland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Bernardino County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Upland's 9,974 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Bernardino 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 San Bernardino 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 Bernardino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Upland's 9,974 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Upland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,974 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Upland-wide figureread your own land →