Mesa del Caballo, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Mesa del Caballo, 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 Mesa del Caballo 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 Mesa del Caballo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mesa del Caballo — the short answer
Mesa del Caballo, Arizona: USDA zone 8a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 204 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 204 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 8a is Mesa del Caballo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mesa del Caballo's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mesa del Caballo
Each reading below is measured for Mesa del Caballo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMesa del Caballo runs about 228 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
MeasuredMesa del Caballo sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Mesa del Caballo is in
Mesa del Caballo sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Mesa del Caballo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Mesa del Caballo
Every plant below cleared Mesa del Caballo's own zone 8a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mesa del Caballo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Mesa del Caballo
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mesa del Caballo checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 347 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mesa del Caballo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mesa del Caballo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-11-10 23AAD3Nitrate · 850 ft
- A-11-10 23ADCNitrate · 1100 ft
- A-11-10 23AABNitrate · 1200 ft
- HOME DEPOT 0422Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- SPEEDWAY STORE #2890Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- A-11-10 11ABDNitrate · 2.1 mi
- GILA COUNTY - PAYSON HIGHWAY MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PAYSON MARKETPLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PEMEX LTDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- A-11-10 34DBDNitrate · 2.6 mi
- A-11-10 34DCANitrate · 2.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2706670Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mesa del Caballo'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 Mesa del Caballo.
Total Sites
218
within ~10 miles of Mesa del Caballo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mesa del Caballo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mesa del Caballo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mesa del Caballo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mesa del Caballo — Mining (34 sites) and Nitrate (122 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Mesa del Caballo
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 Mesa del Caballo average
Your land is one point inside Mesa del Caballo
Everything above resolves to Mesa del Caballo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 204 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 Mesa del Caballo Average
Mesa del Caballo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mesa del Caballo
- ●One soil character for all of Mesa del Caballo
- ●Frost dates read at Mesa del Caballo's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mesa del Caballo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mesa del Caballo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mesa del Caballo, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mesa del Caballo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mesa del Caballo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mesa del Caballo average
How we know this about Mesa del Caballo
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 Mesa del Caballo’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 Mesa del Caballo
When does frost risk typically end in Mesa del Caballo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mesa del Caballo typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Mesa del Caballo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mesa del Caballo typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mesa del Caballo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mesa del Caballo sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 30, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mesa del Caballo?
The federal record around Mesa del Caballo is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Mesa del Caballo?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mesa del Caballo's scale — its 8a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mesa del Caballo'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 Mesa del Caballo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mesa del Caballo's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 204 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mesa del Caballo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mesa del Caballo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 13 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mesa del Caballo, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mesa del Caballo's boundary and the 204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mesa del Caballo's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mesa del Caballo 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 Mesa del Caballo's 204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mesa del Caballo's 204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mesa del Caballo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Mesa del Caballo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaMesa del Caballo sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides