Kalawao County, in Hawaii, sits in USDA hardiness zones 11b-12b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring
Kalawao County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kalawao County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. Enter your address and we'll score 1,085 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Kalawao County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your parcel report in seconds — read in full free for your first 14 days
Kalawao County — the short answer
Kalawao County, Hawaii: USDA zones 11b-12b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 8K acres.
- USDA zones
- 11b-12b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- MOLOKAI KAUNAKAKAI MOLOKAI AP station, 440 ft — 15 km away, 30 yr record
- County area
- 8K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zones 11B–12B
Zones in Kalawao County. Alaska and Hawaii zones come from USDA's separate 2023 AK/HI maps; the national thumbnail map covers the lower 48 only, so the range is shown as text here.
Zone 11b-12b is Kalawao County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kalawao County's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil in Kalawao County
Across Kalawao County, the ground is predominantly Andisols, where Kalaupapa is the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a medial silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.6, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Andisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kalawao County
Each reading below is measured for Kalawao County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Kalawao County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Kalawao County runs about pH 6.6, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredKalawao County records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 30-year station record — 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
MeasuredKalawao County sits in USDA hardiness zones 11b-12b.
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
What Grows in Kalawao County
We scored all 1,085 plants against Kalawao County's own USDA zone 11b-12b and its own 365-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Hawaii profile.
More to grow in Hawaii
Hawaii has a growing page for many more plants than fit above — a rotating sample of the rest of the shelf.
Documented around Kalawao County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Kalawao County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kalawao County — 3 documented sites across 2 of the 8 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 brownfield site. Former commercial or industrial land assessed or cleaned up through EPA’s Brownfields program.
The federal record across Kalawao County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 8 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kalawao County
Closest first, across Kalawao County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KALAUPAPA STATE GARAGE GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KALAUPAPA STORE GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KALAUPAPA NHP-WAIHANAU & KALAUPAPA CHLORINATORBrownfields · 2.3 mi
Measured from Kalawao County's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Browse the full contamination data for this area
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Kalawao County.
Total Sites
3
across Kalawao County
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 brownfield site
Sources Checked
across Kalawao County
Severity Distribution
across Kalawao County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Kalawao County
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,085 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kalawao County average
Your land is one point inside Kalawao County
Everything above resolves to Kalawao County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 8K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Kalawao County Average
Kalawao County Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b-12b, averaged across Kalawao County
- ●One soil character for all of Kalawao County
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kalawao County's 11b-12b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kalawao County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kalawao County, Hawaii — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kalawao County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kalawao County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kalawao County average
How we know this about Kalawao County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Kalawao County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kalawao County
Is it too late to plant in Kalawao County?
No — Kalawao County has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Kalawao County?
It doesn't — Kalawao County records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Kalawao County?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Kalawao County contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kalawao County?
The federal record around Kalawao County is light — 3 documented sites across the 8 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at Kalawao County's scale — its 11b-12b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Kalawao County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Hawaii's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Kalawao County’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Kalawao County's own scale — a 30-year record with no killing freeze in it, the 1 most extensive soil series mapped here and 3 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kalawao County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11b-12bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in Kalawao County's own 30-year station record — a year-round growing season, measured here rather than inheritedNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 1 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kalawao CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 3 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kalawao County's boundary and the 7,674 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,085 plants clear zones 11b-12b and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Open occurrence records documented in Kalawao County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Hawaii grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Hawaii
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Kalawao County — the ~365 days above is one reading at its centre; the 24 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kalawao County's 7,674 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 3 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Kalawao Countyread your own land →