Hawaii
Planting zones in Hawaii County, Hawaii
This county spans USDA zones 10b to 12b, so there is no single zone for Hawaii County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 50% of its ZIP codes are zone 12b; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Hawaii County, Hawaii as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.
What you can sow in Hawaii County now
32 of 32 crops that every one of the 12 NOAA stations serving this county agrees still has time to mature — with a week in hand, so this holds until the page is next rebuilt.
- 🌱 Radishes 28d
- 🥬 Arugula 35d
- 🥬 Baby Salad Greens 35d
- 🥬 Spinach 40d
- 🥬 Mustard Greens 40d
- 🥬 Leaf Lettuce 45d
- 🌿 Cilantro 45d
- 🥬 Bok Choy 45d
- 🌿 Dill 45d
- 🥔 Turnips 50d
- 🧅 Green Onions 55d
- 🥬 Swiss Chard 55d
- 🫘 Bush Beans 55d
- 🥬 Kohlrabi 55d
- 🥒 Zucchini 55d
- 🎃 Summer Squash 55d
- 🌶️ Okra 55d
- 🥕 Beets 58d
- 🥬 Kale 60d
- 🥬 Collards 60d
- 🥒 Cucumbers 60d
- 🫛 Peas 65d
- 🫘 Southern Peas 65d
- 🥕 Carrots 70d
- 🌽 Sweet Corn 75d
- 🎃 Winter Squash 95d
- 🎃 Pumpkins 100d
- 🥦 Broccoli 60d
- 🍅 Tomatoes 60d
- 🌶️ Peppers 65d
- 🥬 Cabbage 70d
- 🍠 Sweet Potato 100d
No station serving this county records a freeze at any probability, so frost is not what limits the list — heat and day length are.
No station serving this county records a freeze at any probability, so there is no season boundary to draw — the growing season here is the whole year.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Hawaii County covers 5 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 50% in zone 12b and wrong for the other 50%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12b | 14 | 50% | |
| 11a | 8 | 29% | |
| 12a | 3 | 11% | |
| 11b | 2 | 7% | |
| 10b | 1 | 4% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
No freeze range is given for Hawaii County, because at least one station here records no freeze at any probability, so there is no date to average. The countdown tool answers per ZIP code, where the question has a definite answer.
The growing season runs 365 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 72.6–87.8 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 1.6–60.6" across those 11 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. At the middle station that is covered, so watering in Hawaii County is for the gaps between storms rather than the whole season. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 83 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
Every ZIP code in Hawaii County
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.
| ZIP code | USDA zone | Nearest NOAA station | Distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96704 | 12b | Opihihale #2 24.1, HI | 4.4 km |
| 96710 | 12b | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 14.4 km |
| 96719 | 12b | Puukohola Heiau 98.1, HI | 23.9 km |
| 96720 | 11a | Hilo 5 S, HI | 15.8 km |
| 96725 | 11a | Kailua Kona Ke-Ahole AP, HI | 21.8 km |
| 96726 | 11a | Opihihale #2 24.1, HI | 18.1 km |
| 96727 | 10b | Paauilo 221, HI | 13.9 km |
| 96728 | 12b | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 16.5 km |
| 96737 | 11b | S Kona 2 2.32, HI | 4.0 km |
| 96738 | 12a | Puukohola Heiau 98.1, HI | 17.2 km |
| 96740 | 12b | Kailua Kona Ke-Ahole AP, HI | 13.7 km |
| 96743 | 11a | Puukohola Heiau 98.1, HI | 4.0 km |
| 96749 | 12b | Hilo 5 S, HI | 10.1 km |
| 96750 | 12b | Ke-Ahole Pt 68.13, HI | 27.7 km |
| 96755 | 12b | Puukohola Heiau 98.1, HI | 19.1 km |
| 96760 | 12a | Glenwood #2 55.4, HI | 9.8 km |
| 96764 | 12b | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 2.8 km |
| 96771 | 11b | Glenwood #2 55.4, HI | 4.8 km |
| 96772 | 12b | S Kona 2 2.32, HI | 9.1 km |
| 96773 | 11a | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 7.9 km |
| 96774 | 11a | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 8.3 km |
| 96776 | 11a | Paauilo 221, HI | 4.2 km |
| 96777 | 12b | Sea Mtn 12.15, HI | 11.5 km |
| 96778 | 12b | Glenwood #2 55.4, HI | 11.5 km |
| 96780 | 12b | Kihalani 132.5, HI | 1.3 km |
| 96781 | 12a | Hilo INTL AP, HI | 18.2 km |
| 96783 | 12b | Hilo INTL AP, HI | 14.8 km |
| 96785 | 11a | Hawaii Vol Np Hq 54, HI | 6.0 km |
ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.
What survives the winter changes across Hawaii County
Zone 10b carries 24 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 12a carries 14. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.
Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.
With no freeze recorded at any probability, there are no dates to be uncertain about — the question this chart answers does not arise here.
The 12 stations behind these numbers
All 12 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 106 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.
A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.
These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glenwood #2 55.4, HI | USC00510746 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Hawaii Vol Np Hq 54, HI | USC00511303 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Hilo 5 S, HI | USW00021515 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Hilo INTL AP, HI | USW00021504 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Kailua Kona Ke-Ahole AP, HI | USW00021510 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Ke-Ahole Pt 68.13, HI | USC00513911 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Kihalani 132.5, HI | USC00514459 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Opihihale #2 24.1, HI | USC00517166 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Paauilo 221, HI | USC00517312 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Puukohola Heiau 98.1, HI | USC00518422 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| S Kona 2 2.32, HI | USC00518652 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
| Sea Mtn 12.15, HI | USC00518600 | no freeze recorded | no freeze recorded | 365 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.
Other places to compare
Hawaii County sits in Hawaii. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.
More of Hawaii
- Kauai County, HI 12a–12b
Gear
If you want to act on this
Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.
- Soaker hose and drip kitsThe stations here publish no ordinary freeze window, so frost is not what limits the season — water is, through a summer that does not stop.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.
Sources
Where these numbers come from
Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.
County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.