Apache County, in Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Apache County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Apache County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Apache County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Apache County — the short answer
Apache County, Arizona: USDA zone 6b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 7.2M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 7.2M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Apache County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apache County's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Apache County
Across a year, Apache County accumulates about 2,722 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,037 fewer than the middle Arizona county — ahead of 1 of Arizona’s 15 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Apache County
Across Apache County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Clovis, Sheppard, and Palma are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
0%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Apache County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of Apache County as well drained — but another 22% drains differently: 9% somewhat excessively drained, 8% excessively drained.
Clovis is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Sheppard (5%) and Palma (4%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Apache County
Each reading below is measured for Apache County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Apache County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Apache County runs about pH 7.6–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredApache County runs about 168 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
MeasuredApache County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Apache County is in
Apache County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Arizona/New Mexico Plateau (65%), Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (29%) and Colorado Plateaus (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Apache County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Apache County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 168-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile.
Is it too late to plant in Apache County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Apache County
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Apache County
USGS estimates 5,287 lb of Glyphosate on Apache County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acephate (3,446 lb) and Methomyl (3,067 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Apache County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Apache County — 1,124 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 22 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Apache County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Apache County
Closest first, across Apache County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17 126-00.17X05.80Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 17 126-00.22X05.74Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 17 126-01.75X08.90Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 17 126-04.70X11.20Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 17 125-08.96X13.28Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- 17 126-06.80X06.56Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- 17 126-05.90X11.95Nitrate · 7.6 mi
- 17 125-05.72X08.22Nitrate · 7.8 mi
- 17 126-01.86X00.08Nitrate · 8.2 mi
- 17 110-01.50X17.24Nitrate · 8.3 mi
- 17 110-01.45X16.90Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 17 125-05.83X11.97Nitrate · 8.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apache County'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 Apache County.
Sources Checked
across Apache County
Severity Distribution
across Apache County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apache County, two things run higher than the national average across Apache County — Nitrate (944 sites) and PFAS (15 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Apache County
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 Apache County average
Your land is one point inside Apache County
Everything above resolves to Apache County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 7.2M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Apache County Average
Apache County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Apache County
- ●One soil character for all of Apache County
- ●Frost dates read at Apache County's scale: May 3 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apache County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Apache County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apache County, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apache County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apache County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apache County average
How we know this about Apache County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Apache County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Apache County
When does frost risk typically end in Apache County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apache County typically lands around May 3, 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 May 24.
How long is the growing season in Apache County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apache County sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Oct 4, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apache County?
The federal record around Apache County runs heavier than most — 1,124 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (944), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.3 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.
Everything above is measured at Apache County's scale — its 6b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apache County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Arizona's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Apache County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Apache County's own scale — its own ~168-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 1,124 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apache County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apache County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Apache CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 1,124 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Apache County's boundary and the 7,166,912 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Apache County spans, Arizona/New Mexico Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Apache County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Apache County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Arizona grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Arizona
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Apache County — the ~168 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apache County's 7,166,912 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 1,124 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Apache Countyread your own land →