Lodi spans USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Lodi isn't just a line on the San Joaquin County map — it's the heart of the Lodi AVA, the winegrowing region that stretches across the Mokelumne River flats of San Joaquin and southern Sacramento counties (27 CFR §9.106). What sets it apart isn't the zone number — it's the Delta breeze. On summer afternoons, cool marine air is pulled inland through the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, dropping nighttime lows far below the valley's triple-digit daytime highs and giving Lodi some of the widest day-to-night temperature swings in the Central Valley. That diurnal rhythm — paired with deep sandy loams and a long ~321-frost-free-day season in Zone 9b — is why Lodi is famous for heritage old-vine Zinfandel and grows more than a hundred grape varieties, and why the same heat-by-day, relief-by-night pattern rewards backyard tomatoes, melons, figs, and stone fruit. A short list that earns its place here — tomato, artichoke, fig, and california poppy — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Lodi spans California.
Your yard isn't all of Lodi.
Lodi spans USDA zones 9b, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Lodi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lodi — the short answer
Lodi: USDA zones 9b, 321–324 frost-free days, in California.
- USDA zones
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 321–324 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 2
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in Lodi
Plants matched to Lodi's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of Lodi
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets Lodi’s USDA zones 9b — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across Lodi
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across two member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Alfisols, at 33% of mapped acres, followed by Mollisols (31%), Entisols (14%) and Vertisols (13%). Seven soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are San Joaquin, Redding, and Capay.
31% of those acres are moderately well drained, and another 27% well drained, 14% somewhat poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 5.8–7.5 between the lowest and the highest county on record.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Topsoil pH
5.8–7.5
Hydric soils
34%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. San Joaquin County holds the most wetland ground here, at 35% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in Lodi
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across Lodi. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records31% of the mapped acres across Lodi are moderately well drained — roughly the middle of the drainage range. That is area-weighted across all two of its mapped counties.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across Lodi runs pH 5.8–7.5 — near neutral in all two of them.
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
Wet ground
From county recordsAbout 34% of the ground across Lodi is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil. San Joaquin County carries the most, at 35%.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Lodi — and how to grow with it.
Across Lodi's 2 counties the federal record holds 12,191 documented sites, mostly Brownfields (9,840), Nitrate (1,312) and Underground Storage Tanks (740). The heaviest single county is Sacramento County, with 6,887.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to Lodi to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 2 counties in Lodi
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lodi, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 9,840 sites across the 2 counties in Lodi. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside Lodi
Everything above resolves to Lodi as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 9b. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs Lodi Average
Lodi Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Lodi
- ●One soil character for all of Lodi
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lodi's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lodi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lodi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lodi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lodi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not Lodi average
How we know this about Lodi
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about Lodi
What hardiness zone is Lodi?
Lodi spans USDA hardiness zones 9b, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in Lodi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lodi's counties mostly run 322 to 323 frost-free days, median 323 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 2 member counties). That 1-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 2 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in Lodi?
Across Lodi, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Jan 23 and Jan 24 (median Jan 23), and their first fall freeze between Dec 11 and Dec 12. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Feb 13, and elevation decides which end of a 1-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in Lodi?
Lodi's conditions suit plants such as Tomato, Artichoke, Fig, California Poppy, Rosemary, Olive. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is Lodi defined?
Lodi is defined here as a curated cluster of 2 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does Lodi cover?
Lodi spans California. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Pacific Northwest, California Central Valley, Sacramento Valley, San Joaquin Valley, Sierra Nevada Foothills, and Sonoran Desert share at least one state with Lodi. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at Lodi’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lodi's own scale — the zone 9b band across its footprint, a median 323-day season across its 2 counties and 12,191 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 6,887 of them in Sacramento County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 9b aggregated across all 2 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 2 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 2 counties run 322 to 323 frost-free days, median 323NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 12,191 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 6,887 of them in Sacramento County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 33% Alfisols, topsoil pH 5.8–7.5, area-weighted across its 2 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 9bfrom California
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 1-day range your ground sits at — 322 days at one extreme, 323 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore Lodi
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across California
The maritime Northwest west of the Cascade crest — mild, wet winters and dry summers behind berries, tree fruit, and lush cool-season gardens. (Union of the west-side ecoregions.)
A vast flat alluvial trough with hot dry summers and rich soils — one of the most productive agricultural regions on earth, from almonds and stone fruit to row crops.
The cooler, wetter northern half of the Central Valley — rice, walnuts, tomatoes, and orchard fruit on rich alluvial bottomland.
The hot southern half of California's Central Valley — deep soils and intense sun behind almonds, stone fruit, grapes, and row crops at vast scale.
California's Gold Country foothills — rocky, well-drained slopes and warm days that suit wine grapes, olives, and Mediterranean orchard crops.
A warm desert of saguaro and palo verde with mild winters that allow desert citrus, dates, and prickly pear alongside intensive irrigated gardening.