Elfrida, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Elfrida, 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 Elfrida 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 Elfrida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elfrida — the short answer
Elfrida, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 8b is Elfrida's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elfrida's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elfrida
Each reading below is measured for Elfrida itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElfrida runs about 254 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
MeasuredElfrida sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Elfrida is in
Elfrida sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Elfrida's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Elfrida
Every plant below cleared Elfrida's own zone 8b and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elfrida?
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 Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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.
Documented around Elfrida
Survey cells within 31 miles of Elfrida checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 448 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Elfrida
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elfrida. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-20-26 22BCCNitrate · 400 ft
- DESERT VIDEOLAND OASISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SNAPPY'S GAS & TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TUMBLEWEED CROSSINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- VALLEY UNION HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ELFRIDA ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- D-20-26 14CBB1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- D-20-26 24CBBNitrate · 2.0 mi
- D-20-26 26AAANitrate · 2.1 mi
- D-20-26 25CBCNitrate · 2.4 mi
- D-20-26 11DDDNitrate · 2.4 mi
- COCHISE COUNTY - EASTERN REGIONAL LANDFILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elfrida'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 Elfrida.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elfrida
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elfrida
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elfrida, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elfrida — Mining (72 sites) and Nitrate (40 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Elfrida
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 Elfrida average
Your land is one point inside Elfrida
Everything above resolves to Elfrida as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Elfrida Average
Elfrida Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Elfrida
- ●One soil character for all of Elfrida
- ●Frost dates read at Elfrida's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elfrida's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elfrida
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elfrida, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elfrida averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elfrida — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elfrida average
How we know this about Elfrida
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 Elfrida’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 Elfrida
When does frost risk typically end in Elfrida?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elfrida typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Elfrida?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elfrida typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elfrida?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elfrida sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 3, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elfrida?
The federal record around Elfrida runs heavier than most — 122 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (72), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elfrida?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elfrida's scale — its 8b band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elfrida'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 Elfrida’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Elfrida's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,881 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elfrida's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elfrida's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 17 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elfrida, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elfrida's boundary and the 3,881 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elfrida's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Elfrida 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 Elfrida's 3,881 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cochise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cochise 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 Cochise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elfrida's 3,881 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elfrida you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,881 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elfrida-wide figureread your own land →
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