Yreka, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Yreka, 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 Yreka 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 Yreka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yreka — the short answer
Yreka, California: USDA zone 8a, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 8a is Yreka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yreka's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yreka
Each reading below is measured for Yreka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYreka runs about 201 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredYreka sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Yreka is in
Yreka sits in the Eastern Cascades Slopes and Foothills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Yreka'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 Yreka
Every plant below cleared Yreka's own zone 8a and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yreka?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Yreka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yreka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SISKIYOU CO DEPT OF AGRIBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SISKIYON GENERAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DOHS SISKIYOU COUNTYBrownfields · 2000 ft
- STATELINE AUTO PARTS INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- USDA USFS R05 EQUIPMENT SHOPBrownfields · 2100 ft
- USDA USFS R05 TH NATIONAL FORESTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ELK METAL PRODUCTSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- AT&T MOBILITYBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ELLIS BROOKS MOTORSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- YREKA MECHANIC SHOP-PACIFIC POWERBrownfields · 2400 ft
- YREKA SERVICE CENTER-PACIFIC POWERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- SISKIYOU DAILY NEWSBrownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yreka'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 Yreka.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Yreka
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yreka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yreka
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yreka, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Yreka — Mining (41 sites) and Brownfields (111 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Yreka
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 Yreka average
Your land is one point inside Yreka
Everything above resolves to Yreka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Yreka Average
Yreka Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Yreka
- ●One soil character for all of Yreka
- ●Frost dates read at Yreka's scale: Apr 17 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yreka's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yreka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yreka, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yreka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yreka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yreka average
How we know this about Yreka
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 Yreka’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 Yreka
When does frost risk typically end in Yreka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yreka typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Yreka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yreka 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 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yreka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yreka sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 21, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yreka?
The federal record around Yreka runs heavier than most — 180 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (111), 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 Yreka?
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 Yreka's scale — its 8a band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yreka'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 Yreka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Yreka's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,389 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yreka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Yreka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Nov 4 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yreka, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yreka's boundary and the 6,389 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Yreka 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 Yreka's 6,389 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 Yreka's 6,389 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yreka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,389 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 Yreka-wide figureread your own land →
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