Vallejo, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Vallejo, 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 Vallejo 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 Vallejo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vallejo — the short answer
Vallejo, California: USDA zone 9b, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Solano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Solano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- Solano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 19K 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 Solano County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Vallejo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vallejo's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vallejo
Each reading below is measured for Vallejo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVallejo runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Solano County, the closest normal to Vallejo) — 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
MeasuredVallejo 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 Vallejo is in
Vallejo sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Vallejo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Solano County is mostly Central California Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Vallejo
Every plant below cleared Vallejo's own zone 9b and its 335-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vallejo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Vallejo
Spotted lanternfly documented 25 miles from Vallejo, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Vallejo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vallejo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VALLEJO MARINE CRAFT INC.Brownfields · 1000 ft
- DBA TRACY RENEE GENE'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1100 ft
- LAO-MIEN AUTOMOTIVE LLCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- METRIC MOTORSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Vallejo Municipal MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GOLDEN TIRES AND WHEELSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- VALLEJO MUNICIPAL MARINABrownfields · 1600 ft
- City of Vallejo - City HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SPRINGS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- KAREN BOSTONBrownfields · 1900 ft
- A & R AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2200 ft
- LIPSEYS MUFFLER & TIREBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vallejo'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 Vallejo.
Total Sites
1,612
within ~10 miles of Vallejo
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vallejo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vallejo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vallejo, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 1,435 sites within ~10 miles of Vallejo. 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.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Vallejo
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 Vallejo average
Your land is one point inside Vallejo
Everything above resolves to Vallejo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Solano 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 Vallejo Average
Vallejo Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Vallejo
- ●One soil character for all of Vallejo
- ●Frost dates read at Vallejo's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vallejo's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vallejo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vallejo, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vallejo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vallejo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vallejo average
How we know this about Vallejo
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 Solano 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 Vallejo
When does frost risk typically end in Vallejo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vallejo typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Vallejo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vallejo typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 335 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vallejo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vallejo sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Dec 2, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vallejo?
The federal record around Vallejo runs heavier than most — 1,612 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (1,435), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Vallejo?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vallejo's scale — its 9b band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vallejo'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 Vallejo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vallejo's own scale — the 19,478 acres it covers and 1,612 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vallejo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,612 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vallejo, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vallejo's boundary and the 19,478 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Vallejo sits in the Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Vallejolydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Vallejo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Solano County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vallejo's 19,478 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Solano County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Solano 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 Solano County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vallejo's 19,478 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vallejo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,478 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Vallejo-wide figureread your own land →
More in California
Growing region
Nearby growing guides