Del Muerto, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Del Muerto, 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 Del Muerto 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 Del Muerto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Del Muerto — the short answer
Del Muerto, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 761 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 761 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 7a is Del Muerto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Del Muerto's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Del Muerto
Each reading below is measured for Del Muerto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDel Muerto runs about 192 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
MeasuredDel Muerto sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Del Muerto is in
Del Muerto sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Del Muerto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Apache County.
What Grows in Del Muerto
Every plant below cleared Del Muerto's own zone 7a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Del Muerto?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Del Muerto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Del Muerto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10 070-13.10X03.60Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 11 052-07.92X16.45Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 11 070-05.48X08.04Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 10 071-02.05X07.16Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 10 071-02.11X07.09Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 10 071-02.44X06.72Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 10 071-02.54X06.54Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 10 071-02.58X06.46Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 10 071-02.62X06.37Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 10 071-02.53X06.80Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 10 071-02.56X06.80Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 10 071-02.57X06.80Nitrate · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Del Muerto'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 Del Muerto.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Del Muerto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Del Muerto, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Del Muerto. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Del Muerto
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 Del Muerto average
Your land is one point inside Del Muerto
Everything above resolves to Del Muerto as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 761 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 Del Muerto Average
Del Muerto Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Del Muerto
- ●One soil character for all of Del Muerto
- ●Frost dates read at Del Muerto's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Del Muerto's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Del Muerto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Del Muerto, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Del Muerto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Del Muerto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Del Muerto average
How we know this about Del Muerto
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 Del Muerto’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 Del Muerto
When does frost risk typically end in Del Muerto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Del Muerto typically lands around Apr 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 May 11.
When is the first frost in Del Muerto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Del Muerto typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Del Muerto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Del Muerto sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 15, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Del Muerto?
The federal record around Del Muerto shows 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Del Muerto?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Del Muerto's scale — its 7a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Del Muerto'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 Del Muerto’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Del Muerto's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 761 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Del Muerto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Del Muerto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 29 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Del Muerto, the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Del Muerto's boundary and the 761 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Del Muerto'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 Del Muerto's 761 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 Del Muerto's 761 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Del Muerto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 761 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.8 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 Del Muerto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaDel Muerto sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides