Puako, Hawaii, sits in USDA hardiness zone 13a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect chicken of the woods, blue clitoria, mexican oregano, and lion's mane to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Puako, 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 Puako 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 Puako — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Puako — the short answer
Puako, Hawaii: USDA zone 13a, no 28°F killing freeze in Hawaii County’s record — the season is year-round, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 13a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- Hawaii 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 — Hawaii 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 13a is Puako's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Puako'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 Puako
Each reading below is measured for Puako itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPuako has no station of its own, and Hawaii 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
MeasuredPuako sits in USDA hardiness zone 13a.
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 Puako
Every plant below cleared Puako's own zone 13a and its 365-day season. Each card opens that plant's Hawaii profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Puako
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Puako. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAUNA LANI RESORTBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- HI AW-MAUNA LANI WWTFBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FAIRMONT ORCHID HAWAIIBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MAUNA LANI RADIO SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MAUNA LANI BAY HOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MAUNA LANI RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MAUNA LANI GOLF MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MR. K'S RECYCLE & REDEMPTION CENTERBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- SOUTH KOHALA WATER CORPBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- DUST CONTROL WELL NEAR WAIKOLOA GOLF COURSENitrate · 3.2 mi
- SHELL GAS WAIKOLOA BEACH #1110Brownfields · 3.2 mi
- WAIKOLOA BEACH RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Puako'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 Puako.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Puako
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Puako
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Puako
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 Puako average
Your land is one point inside Puako
Everything above resolves to Puako as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hawaii 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 Puako Average
Puako Average
- ●USDA Zones 13a, averaged across Puako
- ●One soil character for all of Puako
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Puako's 13a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Puako
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Puako, Hawaii — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Puako averages can't show:
We read public map data around Puako — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Puako average
How we know this about Puako
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 Hawaii 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 Puako
Is it too late to plant in Puako?
No — Puako has no station of its own, and Hawaii 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 Puako?
It doesn't — Puako has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Hawaii 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 Puako?
Year-round — Puako has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Hawaii 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 Puako?
The federal record around Puako is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Puako's scale — its 13a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Puako'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 Puako’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Puako's own scale — the 2,052 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Puako's own USDA hardiness band, zones 13aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Puako, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Puako's boundary and the 2,052 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 13a and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost finding — Puako has no station of its own, and its county's 30-year record contains no 28°F killing freeze at allfrom Hawaii County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Puako's 2,052 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hawaii County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hawaii 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 Hawaii County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Puako's 2,052 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Puako you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,052 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Puako-wide figureread your own land →
More in Hawaii
Growing region
Nearby growing guides