Yuba City, California, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Yuba City, 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 Yuba City 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 Yuba City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yuba City — the short answer
Yuba City, California: USDA zone 9b, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 16
- Sutter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Sutter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- Sutter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Sutter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Yuba City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yuba City's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yuba City
Each reading below is measured for Yuba City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsYuba City runs about 330 days between hard freezes (read from Sutter County, the closest normal to Yuba City) — 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
MeasuredYuba City 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 Yuba City is in
Yuba City sits in the Central California Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Mediterranean California. That is read at Yuba City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sutter County.
What Grows in Yuba City
Every plant below cleared Yuba City's own zone 9b and its 330-day season. Each card opens that plant's California profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yuba City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 16 (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 Yuba City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yuba City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MIKE'S MINI MART - USTUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BRAKES TIRES AND MORE INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- RIEBES AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 1000 ft
- DOLLAR TREE #01218Brownfields · 1200 ft
- QUIK STOP MARKET #136Brownfields · 1400 ft
- QUIK STOP MARKET #136Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NISSAN OF YUBA CITYBrownfields · 1700 ft
- WINCO FOODS #26Brownfields · 1700 ft
- JIFFY LUBE #2353Brownfields · 1800 ft
- PARTY CITY CORP DBA HALLOWEEN CITY #8321Brownfields · 2100 ft
- KOHL'S INC - STORE #1020Brownfields · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yuba City'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 Yuba City.
Total Sites
953
within ~10 miles of Yuba City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yuba City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yuba City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yuba City, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 652 sites within ~10 miles of Yuba City. 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 Yuba City
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 Yuba City average
Your land is one point inside Yuba City
Everything above resolves to Yuba City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 11K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sutter 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 Yuba City Average
Yuba City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Yuba City
- ●One soil character for all of Yuba City
- ●Frost dates read at Yuba City's scale: Jan 16 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yuba City's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yuba City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yuba City, California — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yuba City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yuba City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yuba City average
How we know this about Yuba City
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 Sutter 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 Yuba City
When does frost risk typically end in Yuba City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yuba City typically lands around Jan 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Yuba City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yuba City 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 330 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yuba City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yuba City sees about 330 frost-free days — roughly Jan 16 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 6 to Nov 28, about 295 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yuba City?
The federal record around Yuba City is a meaningful one — 953 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (652), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Yuba City?
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 Yuba City's scale — its 9b band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yuba City'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 Yuba City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Yuba City's own scale — the 10,605 acres it covers and 953 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yuba City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 953 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yuba City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yuba City's boundary and the 10,605 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~330-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Yuba City's own centroid, the Central California ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Yuba City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sutter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yuba City's 10,605 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sutter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sutter 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 Sutter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yuba City's 10,605 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yuba City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,605 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Yuba City-wide figureread your own land →