Makawao, Hawaii, sits in USDA hardiness zone 12a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cassava, starfruit, allspice, and eggplant, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Makawao, 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 Makawao 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 Makawao — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Makawao — the short answer
Makawao, Hawaii: USDA zone 12a, no 28°F killing freeze in Maui County’s record — the season is year-round, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 12a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- Maui County normal — NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — Maui County’s 30-year record, the closest to this town, contains no 28°F killing freeze — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 12a is Makawao's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Makawao's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Makawao
Each reading below is measured for Makawao itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMakawao has no station of its own, and Maui County’s 30-year record — the closest to it — carries no 28°F killing freeze at all — 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
MeasuredMakawao sits in USDA hardiness zone 12a.
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 Makawao
Every plant below cleared Makawao's own zone 12a and its 365-day season. Each card opens that plant's Hawaii profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Makawao
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Makawao. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KUSUMOTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MINIT STOP MAKAWAOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MAKAWAO CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CROSSROADS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HALEAKALA DISTILLERSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SEABURY HALLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SEABURY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- COUNTY OF MAUI HIGHWAY DIVISION MAKAWAO DISTRICT OFFICEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Maui County Hwy Div Makawao Base yardUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PI`IHOLO WATER TREATMENT FACILITYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Maui County MAKAWAO FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PUKALANI SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Makawao'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 Makawao.
Total Sites
228
within ~10 miles of Makawao
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Makawao
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Makawao
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Makawao, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Makawao — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Makawao
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 Makawao average
Your land is one point inside Makawao
Everything above resolves to Makawao as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Maui 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 Makawao Average
Makawao Average
- ●USDA Zones 12a, averaged across Makawao
- ●One soil character for all of Makawao
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Makawao's 12a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Makawao
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Makawao, Hawaii — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Makawao averages can't show:
We read public map data around Makawao — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Makawao average
How we know this about Makawao
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 Maui 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 Makawao
Is it too late to plant in Makawao?
No — Makawao has no station of its own, and Maui County's 30-year record, the closest to it, holds no 28°F killing freeze, 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 Makawao?
It doesn't — Makawao has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Maui County, the nearest to it, carries no 28°F killing freeze at all, 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 Makawao?
Year-round — Makawao has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Maui County, the closest to it, 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 Makawao?
The federal record around Makawao is a meaningful one — 228 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Makawao's scale — its 12a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Makawao'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 Makawao’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Makawao's own scale — the 2,269 acres it covers and 228 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Makawao's own USDA hardiness band, zones 12aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 228 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Makawao, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Makawao's boundary and the 2,269 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 12a and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost finding — Makawao has no station of its own, and its county's 30-year record contains no 28°F killing freeze at allfrom Maui County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Makawao's 2,269 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Maui County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Maui County
- The growing challenges every Hawaii grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Hawaii
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Maui County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Makawao's 2,269 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Makawao you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,269 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Makawao-wide figureread your own land →
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