Alamo Lake, 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.
These conditions suit jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alamo Lake, 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 Alamo Lake 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 Alamo Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alamo Lake — the short answer
Alamo Lake, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 28K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 29
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 28K 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 La Paz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Alamo Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alamo Lake's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alamo Lake
Each reading below is measured for Alamo Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlamo Lake runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from La Paz County, the closest normal to Alamo Lake) — 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
MeasuredAlamo Lake 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 Alamo Lake is in
Alamo Lake sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Alamo Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from La Paz County.
What Grows in Alamo Lake
Plants matched to Alamo Lake'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 Alamo Lake?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Alamo Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alamo Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 225 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alamo Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alamo Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ARIZONA STATE PARKS - ALAMO LAKE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- USARMY COE - ALAMO DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- OregonMining · 6.2 mi
- Arizona Research & DevelopmentMining · 6.8 mi
- SunnysideMining · 7.5 mi
- UnknownMining · 7.5 mi
- Happy Jean GroupMining · 7.5 mi
- Mystery Hill Mine GroupMining · 8.4 mi
- Olson's Copper ProspectMining · 8.5 mi
- Deer TrailMining · 8.8 mi
- RawhideMining · 9.3 mi
- Montana-Arizona MineMining · 9.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alamo Lake'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 Alamo Lake.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alamo Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Alamo Lake
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 Alamo Lake average
Your land is one point inside Alamo Lake
Everything above resolves to Alamo Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 28K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from La Paz 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 Alamo Lake Average
Alamo Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Alamo Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Alamo Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Alamo Lake's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alamo Lake's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alamo Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alamo Lake, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alamo Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alamo Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alamo Lake average
How we know this about Alamo Lake
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 La Paz 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 Alamo Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Alamo Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo Lake typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Alamo Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo Lake typically arrives around Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 15, so the watching starts about Nov 29 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alamo Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alamo Lake sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 15, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alamo Lake?
The federal record around Alamo Lake is a meaningful one — 20 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alamo Lake?
From about Nov 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alamo Lake's scale — its 9a band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alamo Lake'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 Alamo Lake’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alamo Lake's own scale — the 28,125 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alamo Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alamo Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alamo Lake's boundary and the 28,125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Alamo Lake's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alamo Lake checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alamo Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom La Paz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alamo Lake's 28,125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Paz 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 La Paz 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 La Paz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alamo Lake's 28,125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alamo Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 28,125 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.8 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 Alamo Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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