Mescal, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Mescal, 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 Mescal 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 Mescal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mescal — the short answer
Mescal, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Mescal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mescal's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mescal
Each reading below is measured for Mescal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMescal runs about 289 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMescal 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 Mescal is in
Mescal sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Mescal's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Mescal
Every plant below cleared Mescal's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mescal?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Mescal
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mescal checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 401 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mescal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mescal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUICK PIC MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- D-17-19 18BCC1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- D-17-19 17AAD1Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- D-17-19 17DDD2Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- D-17-19 29ACA1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- D-17-19 22BAB1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- D-17-19 13BCC1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- US WEST WHETSTONE RADIO # 125652Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- D-17-19 26DBC1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- D-17-20 18BBB1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- D-16-19 36DBD1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- D-16-18 14DCD2Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mescal'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 Mescal.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mescal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mescal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mescal, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Mescal. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Mescal
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 Mescal average
Your land is one point inside Mescal
Everything above resolves to Mescal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mescal Average
Mescal Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mescal
- ●One soil character for all of Mescal
- ●Frost dates read at Mescal's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mescal's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mescal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mescal, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mescal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mescal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mescal average
How we know this about Mescal
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 Mescal’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 Mescal
When does frost risk typically end in Mescal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mescal typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Mescal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mescal typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mescal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mescal sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 19, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mescal?
The federal record around Mescal shows 128 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mescal?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mescal's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mescal'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 Mescal’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mescal's own scale — its own ~289-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,152 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mescal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mescal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 17 and Dec 3 and the ~289-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mescal, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mescal's boundary and the 3,152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mescal's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mescal 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 Mescal's 3,152 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 Mescal's 3,152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mescal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,152 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Mescal-wide figureread your own land →