East Fork, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in East Fork, 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 East Fork 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 East Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Fork — the short answer
East Fork, Arizona: USDA zone 7b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 East Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Fork's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Fork
Each reading below is measured for East Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Fork runs about 202 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
MeasuredEast Fork 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 East Fork is in
East Fork sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at East Fork's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Navajo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in East Fork
Every plant below cleared East Fork's own zone 7b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Fork?
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 Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near East Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITERIVER I H S HOSPITALBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- FORT APACHE TIMBER COBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- DILKON BIA ROADS MAINT YDBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- FORT APACHE HISTORIC DISTRICTBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- WMATUA Miner FlatPFAS · 9.9 mi
Measured from East Fork'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 East Fork.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in East Fork
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 East Fork average
Your land is one point inside East Fork
Everything above resolves to East Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 East Fork Average
East Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Fork
- ●One soil character for all of East Fork
- ●Frost dates read at East Fork's scale: Apr 16 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Fork's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Fork, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Fork average
How we know this about East Fork
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 East Fork’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 East Fork
When does frost risk typically end in East Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Fork typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in East Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Fork typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Fork sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 21, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Fork?
The federal record around East Fork shows 5 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (4), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.3 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 East Fork?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Fork's scale — its 7b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Fork'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 East Fork’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East Fork's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,319 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Nov 4 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Fork, the closest Brownfields record about 3.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Fork's boundary and the 1,319 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- East Fork sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Fork's 1,319 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navajo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navajo 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 Navajo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Fork's 1,319 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,319 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 3.3 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 East Fork-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaEast Fork sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides