Alpine, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Alpine, 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 Alpine 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 Alpine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alpine — the short answer
Alpine, Arizona: USDA zone 6a, about 152 days between hard freezes, across 362 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~152
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 362 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 6a is Alpine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alpine's 152-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alpine
Each reading below is measured for Alpine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlpine runs about 152 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlpine sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Alpine is in
Alpine sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Alpine's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Apache County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alpine
Every plant below cleared Alpine's own zone 6a and its 152-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alpine?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Alpine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alpine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDDLE MTN SILVEXSuperfund · 450 ft
- ALPINE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALPINE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- THE TACKLE SHOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BECKER REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALPINE MUSEUM & ART GALLERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BURNETT CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALPINE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- USDA FS - APACHE SITGREAVES NF - ALPINE RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- A-05-30 14ABDNitrate · 1.0 mi
- ADOT - ALPINE MAINTENANCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- A-05-30 02AAANitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alpine'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 Alpine.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Alpine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alpine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alpine, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Alpine. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Alpine
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 Alpine average
Your land is one point inside Alpine
Everything above resolves to Alpine as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 362 acres. 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 Alpine Average
Alpine Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Alpine
- ●One soil character for all of Alpine
- ●Frost dates read at Alpine's scale: May 14 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alpine's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alpine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alpine, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alpine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alpine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alpine average
How we know this about Alpine
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 Alpine’s own record; 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 Alpine
When does frost risk typically end in Alpine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alpine typically lands around May 14, 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 Jun 4.
When is the first frost in Alpine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alpine typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 152 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alpine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alpine sees about 152 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 29, about 117 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alpine?
The federal record around Alpine is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alpine?
From about Sep 13 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 Oct 13 (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 Oct 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alpine's scale — its 6a band and its 152-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alpine'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 Alpine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alpine's own scale — its own ~152-day season between 28°F freezes, the 362 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alpine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alpine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 13 and the ~152-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alpine, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alpine's boundary and the 362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~152-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alpine sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alpine's 362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Apache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Apache 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 Apache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alpine's 362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alpine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alpine-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaAlpine sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides