Volcano, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Volcano, 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 Volcano 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 Volcano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Volcano — the short answer
Volcano, California: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 896 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Amador County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 896 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 Amador County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Volcano's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Volcano's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Volcano
Each reading below is measured for Volcano itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVolcano runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Amador County, the closest normal to Volcano) — 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
MeasuredVolcano 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 Volcano is in
Volcano sits in the Sierra Nevada — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Volcano's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Amador County is mostly Central California Foothills and Coastal Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Volcano
Every plant below cleared Volcano's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Volcano?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Volcano
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Volcano. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 007N012E23M001MNitrate · 0.7 mi
- OWENS-ILLINOIS VOLCANO PLANT #83Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- 007N012E15D001MNitrate · 1.9 mi
- CALIFORNIA STATE PARKS INDIAN GRINDING ROCK SHPBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ALLIANCE MFG INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- RED CORRAL AUTO PAINT & BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- MOORE PRECISION MFGBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- J & H AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- AA ABLE AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- AMADOR AUTOMOTIVE INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- SIERRA MACHINE PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- SOUTHWICK & SON TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Volcano'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 Volcano.
Total Sites
153
within ~10 miles of Volcano
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Volcano
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Volcano
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Volcano, Mining runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Volcano. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Volcano
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 Volcano average
Your land is one point inside Volcano
Everything above resolves to Volcano as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 896 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Amador 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 Volcano Average
Volcano Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Volcano
- ●One soil character for all of Volcano
- ●Frost dates read at Volcano's scale: Feb 21 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Volcano's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Volcano
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Volcano, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Volcano averages can't show:
We read public map data around Volcano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Volcano average
How we know this about Volcano
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 Amador 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 Volcano
When does frost risk typically end in Volcano?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Volcano typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Volcano?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Volcano typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Volcano?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Volcano sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 25, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Volcano?
The federal record around Volcano runs heavier than most — 153 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Volcano?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Volcano's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Volcano'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 Volcano’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Volcano's own scale — the 896 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Volcano's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Volcano, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Volcano's boundary and the 896 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Volcano sits in the Sierra Nevada — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Volcano has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Amador County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Volcano's 896 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Amador County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Amador 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 Amador County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Volcano's 896 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Volcano you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 896 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Volcano-wide figureread your own land →
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