Place guide
Planting zones in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
This metro spans USDA zones 9a to 10a, so there is no single zone for Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 82% of its ZIP codes are zone 9b; the rest are not.
Your ZIP code
Get the exact answer for your address
Everything above describes Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA 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 Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA now
6 of 32 crops that every one of the 5 NOAA stations serving this metro area 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
- 🥔 Turnips 50d
Counted against a first fall freeze of November 11 – December 13 across 5 of those stations, NOAA 1991–2020 normals.
A further 15 crops depend on where in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA you are — its stations disagree about them. The ZIP lookup above settles it for one address.
All 5 stations agreeAt least one station
Every one of the 5 NOAA stations serving this metro area counts March 25 – November 11 as growing season (231 days). Widening to any single station gives January 28 – December 13 (319 days).
That is a 88-day difference inside one metro area — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.
Which zone you are in depends where you are
Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA covers 3 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the metro one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — which is fine for the 82% in zone 9b and wrong for the other 18%. Here is the actual split.
| Zone | ZIP codes | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9b | 14 | 82% | |
| 9a | 2 | 12% | |
| 10a | 1 | 6% |
Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the metro's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.
Your freeze dates
Those are the earliest and latest medians among the 5 stations serving this metro — not an average, and not one station standing in for the rest. Half of years freeze later than a station's own median.
The spread is the point. Even in a metro that is one hardiness zone throughout, its stations disagree about the last spring freeze. Hardiness zone and frost date measure different things — a zone is the average annual coldest night, a freeze date is when the season turns — and a place can be uniform in one and varied in the other. Use the tools below with your own ZIP rather than the ends of this range.
Your growing season
NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 5 stations serving Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA it runs 231–324 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 72–88 °F , below the 90 °F point where cool-season crops reliably bolt. Summer rain over the same months runs 0.2–0.3" across those 5 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 2% of it, so a summer garden here is watered rather than rained on. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 75 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.
When to start seeds in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
Every spring job for 63 crop dates, counted from this metro's own last spring freeze. Each is a range across all 5 stations — the earliest and latest that job falls anywhere in the metro — because no one station speaks for the whole area.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arugula | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Beets | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Mustard Greens | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Okra | Start indoors | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Radishes | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Turnips | Direct sow | January 1 – December 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Set out | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Carrots | Direct sow | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Direct sow | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Set out | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Start indoors | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Set out | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Direct sow | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Set out | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Direct sow | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Set out | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Pumpkins | Start indoors | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Summer Squash | Start indoors | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Winter Squash | Start indoors | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Zucchini | Start indoors | January 7 – March 4 | 3 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Direct sow | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Set out | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Set out | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Cilantro | Direct sow | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Set out | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Direct sow | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Set out | January 14 – March 11 | 2 weeks before |
| Dill | Direct sow | January 21 – March 18 | 1 week before |
| Green Onions | Start indoors | January 28 – December 8 | 8 weeks before |
| Peppers | Start indoors | January 28 – December 8 | 8 weeks before |
| Bush Beans | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Sweet Corn | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Tomatoes | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Direct sow | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Set out | February 4 – April 1 | 1 week after |
| Broccoli | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Collards | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Direct sow | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Kale | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Okra | Direct sow | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Set out | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Peas | Direct sow | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Peppers | Set out | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Southern Peas | Direct sow | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Spinach | Direct sow | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Set out | February 11 – April 8 | 2 weeks after |
| Tomatoes | Start indoors | February 11 – December 22 | 6 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Start indoors | February 18 – December 29 | 5 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Start indoors | February 18 – December 29 | 5 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Start indoors | February 18 – December 29 | 5 weeks before |
The week offsets are conventional extension guidance and vary by variety; the freeze dates they are counted from are measured. For a single date rather than a range, run when do I start my seeds? with your own ZIP code.
What survives the winter changes across Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 46 come through the winter in zone 9a and only 25 in zone 10a. That is a different garden at each end of the same metro.
| Zone | ZIPs | Survive | Fail for being too warm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9a | 2 | 46 of 74 | 25 |
| 9b | 14 | 40 of 74 | 32 |
| 10a | 1 | 25 of 74 | 49 |
The last column is the counterintuitive one, and it is why the totals do not simply rise as the winters get milder. Most temperate fruit needs a documented number of hours below about 45 °F to break dormancy and set a crop, so an apple fails in a winter that is too warm; currants and rhubarb cook in the summer heat that comes with it. See the full list with reasons.
At least one station here freezes across the new year, which puts the two ends of a spread on opposite sides of the calendar. Drawing it would produce a bar spanning almost the whole year and meaning nothing, so none is drawn.
The 5 stations behind these numbers
All 5 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 33 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 metro area.
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.
Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Which station serves a given ZIP code, and how far away it is, varies across the metro — the table below gives it per ZIP code rather than this page averaging it.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Lomond #4, CA | USC00040673 | March 25 | November 11 | 231 days |
| Los Gatos, CA | USC00045123 | February 2 | December 6 | 310 days |
| Santa Cruz, CA | USC00047916 | January 29 | December 13 | 323 days |
| Watsonville Muni AP, CA | USW00023277 | January 31 | December 9 | 317 days |
| Watsonville Wtr Wks, CA | USC00049473 | January 28 | December 13 | 324 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Every ZIP code in Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA
Zones are published per ZIP code, not per metro area, so this is the exact answer rather than the metro area'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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 95003 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 11.0 km |
| 95005 | 9a | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 1.7 km |
| 95006 | 9b | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 11.4 km |
| 95007 | 9b | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 4.1 km |
| 95010 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 4.2 km |
| 95017 | 9b | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 14.0 km |
| 95018 | 9b | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 1.8 km |
| 95019 | 9b | Watsonville Muni AP, CA | 0.4 km |
| 95033 | 9b | Los Gatos, CA | 8.3 km |
| 95041 | 9a | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 4.3 km |
| 95060 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 8.8 km |
| 95062 | 10a | Santa Cruz, CA | 1.8 km |
| 95064 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 5.3 km |
| 95065 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 5.1 km |
| 95066 | 9b | Ben Lomond #4, CA | 6.1 km |
| 95073 | 9b | Santa Cruz, CA | 8.4 km |
| 95076 | 9b | Watsonville Wtr Wks, CA | 2.0 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.
Your own ZIP
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
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What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers for all of Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA at once — zone across 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Other places to compare
These metros span exactly the same zones — 9a–10a — so the same plants are in and out of range across them. The freeze dates and the spring calendar are their own.
- Yuma, AZ — zones 9a–10a
- Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, TX — zones 9a–10a
- Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ — zones 9a–10a
- New Orleans-Metairie, LA — zones 9a–10a
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA — zones 9a–10a
- Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA — zones 9a–10a
Gardening in California — zones 5b– 11a covers the whole state: how its 1,788 ZIP codes divide between 12 hardiness zones, and the freeze dates across every NOAA station in it.
Other metro areas in CA:
- El Centro, CA Zones 9b–10a
- Vallejo, CA Zone 9b
- Napa, CA Zones 9a–9b
- Hanford-Corcoran, CA Zones 9a–9b
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA Zones 7b–11a
- San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA Zones 9b–10b
- Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA Zones 7a–10b
- Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA Zones 6b–9b
- San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA Zones 8a–11a
- Fresno, CA Zones 5b, 7b, 8a, 8b, 9a, 9b
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Zones 9a–10a
- Bakersfield-Delano, CA Zones 8a–9b
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.
- Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
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
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.
This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.