Arivaca Junction, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Arivaca Junction, 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 Arivaca Junction 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 Arivaca Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arivaca Junction — the short answer
Arivaca Junction, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 9a is Arivaca Junction's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arivaca Junction's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arivaca Junction
Each reading below is measured for Arivaca Junction itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArivaca Junction runs about 291 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredArivaca Junction 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 Arivaca Junction is in
Arivaca Junction sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Arivaca Junction's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pima County.
What Grows in Arivaca Junction
Every plant below cleared Arivaca Junction's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arivaca Junction?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Arivaca Junction
Survey cells within 31 miles of Arivaca Junction checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 369 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arivaca Junction
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arivaca Junction. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-19-12 36CBBNitrate · 0.5 mi
- SOPORI ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMADO MINI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- D-19-13 29CBB2Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- D-19-13 29CBANitrate · 1.9 mi
- LUNA SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MOUNTAIN VIEW RV RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RANCHO EL SOPORIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- D-19-13 07ABC2Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- D-19-13 16BADNitrate · 4.3 mi
- D-19-13 22CACNitrate · 4.3 mi
- D-19-13 16ACBNitrate · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arivaca Junction'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 Arivaca Junction.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Arivaca Junction
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arivaca Junction
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arivaca Junction
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arivaca Junction, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arivaca Junction — Mining (55 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Arivaca Junction
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 Arivaca Junction average
Your land is one point inside Arivaca Junction
Everything above resolves to Arivaca Junction as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Arivaca Junction Average
Arivaca Junction Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Arivaca Junction
- ●One soil character for all of Arivaca Junction
- ●Frost dates read at Arivaca Junction's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arivaca Junction's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arivaca Junction
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arivaca Junction, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arivaca Junction averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arivaca Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arivaca Junction average
How we know this about Arivaca Junction
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 Arivaca Junction’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 Arivaca Junction
When does frost risk typically end in Arivaca Junction?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arivaca Junction typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 7.
When is the first frost in Arivaca Junction?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arivaca Junction typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arivaca Junction?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arivaca Junction sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 18, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arivaca Junction?
The federal record around Arivaca Junction runs heavier than most — 122 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (55), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Arivaca Junction?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arivaca Junction's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arivaca Junction'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 Arivaca Junction’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arivaca Junction's own scale — its own ~291-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,891 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arivaca Junction's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arivaca Junction's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 14 and Dec 2 and the ~291-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arivaca Junction, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arivaca Junction's boundary and the 1,891 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arivaca Junction's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Arivaca Junction checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arivaca Junction's 1,891 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pima 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 Pima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arivaca Junction's 1,891 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arivaca Junction you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,891 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Arivaca Junction-wide figureread your own land →