Claypool, 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.
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 Claypool, 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 Claypool 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 Claypool — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Claypool — the short answer
Claypool, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 814 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 814 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 Claypool's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claypool's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Claypool
Each reading below is measured for Claypool itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClaypool runs about 302 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
MeasuredClaypool 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 Claypool is in
Claypool sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Claypool's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Claypool
Every plant below cleared Claypool's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Claypool?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Claypool
Survey cells within 31 miles of Claypool checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 366 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Claypool
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Claypool. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GILA COUNTY - HIGHWAY MAINTENANCE YARD - CLAYPOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JERRY FOUNTAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RAY'S TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE K #2701445Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ADOT - CLAYPOOL MAINTENANCE CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MIAMI UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT #40 - BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SOUTHERN PACIFIC/HILL STREETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1334Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- BHP MIAMI UNITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MIRASTAR #64023Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ARCO #5985Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claypool'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 Claypool.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Claypool
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Claypool
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Claypool, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Claypool — Mining (189 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Claypool
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 Claypool average
Your land is one point inside Claypool
Everything above resolves to Claypool as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 814 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 Claypool Average
Claypool Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Claypool
- ●One soil character for all of Claypool
- ●Frost dates read at Claypool's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claypool's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Claypool
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claypool, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claypool averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claypool — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claypool average
How we know this about Claypool
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 Claypool’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 Claypool
When does frost risk typically end in Claypool?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claypool typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Claypool?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Claypool typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Claypool?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claypool sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 22, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claypool?
The federal record around Claypool runs heavier than most — 315 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (189), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Claypool?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Claypool's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claypool'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 Claypool’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Claypool's own scale — its own ~302-day season between 28°F freezes, the 814 acres it covers and 315 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claypool's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claypool's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 7 and Dec 6 and the ~302-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 315 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Claypool, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Claypool's boundary and the 814 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Claypool's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Claypool 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 Claypool's 814 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Claypool's 814 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Claypool you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 814 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Claypool-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaClaypool sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides