Ak-Chin Village, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ak-Chin Village, 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 Ak-Chin Village 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 Ak-Chin Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ak-Chin Village — the short answer
Ak-Chin Village, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 23
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- Pinal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Pinal County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Ak-Chin Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ak-Chin Village's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ak-Chin Village
Each reading below is measured for Ak-Chin Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAk-Chin Village runs about 327 days between hard freezes (read from Pinal County, the closest normal to Ak-Chin Village) — close to 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
MeasuredAk-Chin Village sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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
The kind of country Ak-Chin Village is in
Ak-Chin Village sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ak-Chin Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pinal County.
What Grows in Ak-Chin Village
Plants matched to Ak-Chin Village's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Ak-Chin Village?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Ak-Chin Village
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ak-Chin Village checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 295 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ak-Chin Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ak-Chin Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K STORE #3390Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- D-05-03 16CCC2Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- JB FARMERS CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- TRUCKING TERMINALBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- MARICOPA WELLS MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- RAY BELL #414 - BULLSHIPPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DIRECT CONNECT DETAILING AND CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- PAX COToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- GOOD 2 GO STORE #509Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- GOOD 2 GO STORES #509Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MARICOPA CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #2702927Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ak-Chin Village'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 Ak-Chin Village.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Ak-Chin Village
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ak-Chin Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ak-Chin Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ak-Chin Village, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites within ~10 miles of Ak-Chin Village. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ak-Chin Village
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 Ak-Chin Village average
Your land is one point inside Ak-Chin Village
Everything above resolves to Ak-Chin Village as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pinal 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 Ak-Chin Village Average
Ak-Chin Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ak-Chin Village
- ●One soil character for all of Ak-Chin Village
- ●Frost dates read at Ak-Chin Village's scale: Jan 23 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ak-Chin Village's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ak-Chin Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ak-Chin Village, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ak-Chin Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ak-Chin Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ak-Chin Village average
How we know this about Ak-Chin Village
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 Pinal 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 Ak-Chin Village
When does frost risk typically end in Ak-Chin Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ak-Chin Village typically lands around Jan 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Feb 13.
When is the first frost in Ak-Chin Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ak-Chin Village typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 327 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ak-Chin Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ak-Chin Village sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 23 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 13 to Dec 2, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ak-Chin Village?
The federal record around Ak-Chin Village shows 97 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ak-Chin Village?
From about Nov 16 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ak-Chin Village's scale — its 9a band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ak-Chin Village'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 Ak-Chin Village’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ak-Chin Village's own scale — the 6,745 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ak-Chin Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ak-Chin Village, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ak-Chin Village's boundary and the 6,745 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Ak-Chin Village's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ak-Chin Village checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ak-Chin Village has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pinal County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ak-Chin Village's 6,745 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pinal County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pinal County
- The growing challenges every Arizona grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arizona
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pinal County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ak-Chin Village's 6,745 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ak-Chin Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,745 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 Ak-Chin Village-wide figureread your own land →
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