When to Plant in Los Angeles, CA: Planting Calendar

Frost is rare in Los Angeles. At the Los Angeles Dwtn Usc Campus station, 1 mile from the center of ZIP 90012, a 32°F night happens in under 1% of years (NOAA 1991–2020), so there is no reliable frost date to count from. Instead, our planner uses the UC Master Gardeners (Los Angeles County) planting dates for the South Coast of California (San Luis Obispo County south). ZIP 90012 is in USDA hardiness zone 10b. Across all 1,265 zone 10 ZIP codes, 70% are frost-rare like this one.

Station and frost odds: NOAA NCEI U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, for the station nearest the center of ZIP 90012. Zone: 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (PRISM data by ZIP code).

Coast or valley: timing tomatoes in Los Angeles

UC ANR’s tomato guide (Publication 8159) puts the city of Los Angeles and the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys in different climate zones. Zone A: “Coastal areas from Santa Barbara south;” including “the cities of San Jose, Los Angeles, Santa Ana, and San Diego; and other areas where summer daytime temperatures are warm but usually below 95ºF (35ºC).” Zone B: “Inland valleys and high and low deserts; the Central, Sacramento, San Fernando, and San Gabriel Valleys;” and “other inland areas where daytime temperatures regularly exceed 95ºF (35ºC) during the summer growing season.”

Heat and fruit set: UC ANR lists these among the causes of blossom drop: “Night temperatures too low, below 55ºF (12.8ºC).” “Daytime temperatures too high, above 90ºF (32.2ºC).” “Excessive smog during blossoming period.”

City soil

From UC Master Gardeners of Los Angeles County: “Locate plantings, especially leafy crops, as far away as practical from streets. As much as 75 feet would be good.” “Consider planting in raised beds or containers using uncontaminated soil.” And on fertilizer: “Vegetable crops primarily need nitrogen; however, some Southern California soils are low in available phosphorus and a few are deficient in potassium.”

The planting table below is the South Coast column of the same Los Angeles County handbook, which is what our planner uses for ZIP 90012.

Sources: UC ANR Publication 8159, Growing Tomatoes in the Home Garden; Vegetable Gardening Handbook for Beginners (UC Master Gardeners, Los Angeles County).

Los Angeles planting dates

This is the same table the planner shows for ZIP 90012. This table uses the South Coast column (San Luis Obispo County south). Inland valleys and deserts follow a different calendar.

Source: UC Cooperative Extension Los Angeles County Master Gardeners, Vegetable Gardening Handbook for Beginners (2017), p. 14, Recommended Vegetable Planting Dates for California (adapted from the California Master Gardener Handbook), South Coast column; cabbage and kale: California Master Gardener Handbook (UC ANR Publication 3338, 2002), Table 14.2, Vegetable gardening at a glance, Recommended planting dates. The UC table gives no days to harvest and doesn’t say whether dates are for seed or transplants, so harvest uses UF/IFAS VH021 days to harvest, counted from seeding, planting or (for crops the UC table says can be set out as transplants) transplanting. (UF/IFAS VH021) Harvest windows add those days to the planting dates and vary with variety and weather. This table uses the South Coast column (San Luis Obispo County south). Inland valleys and deserts follow a different calendar. Not in this table: Basil, Marigolds, Zinnias, Tulips, Daffodils.

Frost across Los Angeles’s ZIP codes

85 of Los Angeles’s 102 ZIP codes are frost-rare in the planner; the others have frost dates from their nearest NOAA station, so the planner counts their dates from frost instead. This page uses ZIP 90012.

Which ZIP codes count as Los Angeles: the 102 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (2020 ZCTAs) with at least half of their land area inside Los Angeles city limits, from the U.S. Census Bureau, 2020 ZCTA to Place Relationship File. ZCTAs are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code areas, so this list may not match every USPS ZIP code. Each ZIP code’s dates are the ones our planner shows for it.

More for Los Angeles gardeners

• Your own ZIP: open the planner for ZIP 90012 and change the ZIP to yours for its own station and dates.
• California: When to plant in California, with frost dates across the state.
• USDA zone 10b: our zone 10 planting guide.
• Frost tonight? How to protect plants from frost.

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