Fort Valley, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Valley, 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 Fort Valley 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 Fort Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Valley — the short answer
Fort Valley, Arizona: USDA zone 6b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 46K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 46K 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 6b is Fort Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Valley's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Valley
Each reading below is measured for Fort Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Valley runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFort Valley 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 Fort Valley is in
Fort Valley sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Fort Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Coconino County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Valley
Every plant below cleared Fort Valley's own zone 6b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Fort Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-23-06 35CDCNitrate · 0.6 mi
- FAIRFIELD SNOWBOWL - FORMER FORT VALLEY LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- USDA FS - HOTSHOT HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- FAIRFIELD SNOWBOWL - MOUNTAIN SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- USDA FS - FORT VALLEY EXPERIMENTAL FORESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- A-22-06 25BBBNitrate · 3.9 mi
- KENDRICK PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- A-23-07 33AAB2Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- A-23-07 27CBC2Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- A-23-07 27CBDNitrate · 5.6 mi
- PEAKVIEW COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- A-22-07 33CCA1Nitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Valley'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 Fort Valley.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Fort Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Valley. 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 Fort Valley
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 Fort Valley average
Your land is one point inside Fort Valley
Everything above resolves to Fort Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 46K 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 Fort Valley Average
Fort Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fort Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Valley's scale: May 18 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Valley, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Valley average
How we know this about Fort Valley
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 Fort Valley’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 Fort Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Valley typically lands around May 18, 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 Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Fort Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Valley typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Valley sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 29, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Valley?
The federal record around Fort Valley is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Fort Valley?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Fort Valley rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Fort Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Valley'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 Fort Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Valley's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 46,369 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Oct 13 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Valley's boundary and the 46,369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Valley 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 Fort Valley's 46,369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coconino County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coconino 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 Coconino County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Valley's 46,369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 46,369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Fort Valley-wide figureread your own land →