Bitter Springs, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bitter Springs, 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 Bitter Springs 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 Bitter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bitter Springs — the short answer
Bitter Springs, Arizona: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Bitter Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bitter Springs's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bitter Springs
Each reading below is measured for Bitter Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBitter Springs runs about 236 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBitter Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Bitter Springs is in
Bitter Springs sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Bitter Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coconino County.
What Grows in Bitter Springs
Every plant below cleared Bitter Springs's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bitter Springs?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Bitter Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bitter Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01-044-01.53X07.84Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- LECHEE HEALTH FACILITYBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- 01-044-00.30X10.80Nitrate · 8.0 mi
Measured from Bitter Springs'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 Bitter Springs.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bitter Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Bitter Springs
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 Bitter Springs average
Your land is one point inside Bitter Springs
Everything above resolves to Bitter Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Bitter Springs Average
Bitter Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bitter Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Bitter Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Bitter Springs's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bitter Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bitter Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bitter Springs, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bitter Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bitter Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bitter Springs average
How we know this about Bitter Springs
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 Bitter Springs’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 Bitter Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Bitter Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bitter Springs typically lands around Mar 20, 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 Apr 10.
When is the first frost in Bitter Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bitter Springs typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bitter Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bitter Springs sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 28, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bitter Springs?
The federal record around Bitter Springs is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 6.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bitter Springs?
From about Oct 12 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 Nov 11 (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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bitter Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bitter Springs'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 Bitter Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bitter Springs's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,133 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bitter Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bitter Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 11 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bitter Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 6.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bitter Springs's boundary and the 5,133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bitter Springs's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bitter Springs's 5,133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coconino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coconino 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 Coconino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bitter Springs's 5,133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bitter Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,133 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 6.8 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 Bitter Springs-wide figureread your own land →