Mohave Valley, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mohave 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 Mohave 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 Mohave Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mohave Valley — the short answer
Mohave Valley, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Mohave County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Mohave Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mohave Valley's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mohave Valley
Each reading below is measured for Mohave Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMohave Valley runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Mohave County, the closest normal to Mohave Valley) — 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
MeasuredMohave Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Mohave Valley is in
Mohave Valley sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mohave Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mohave County.
What Grows in Mohave Valley
Every plant below cleared Mohave Valley's own zone 9a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mohave Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Mohave Valley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mohave Valley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 192 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mohave Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mohave Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIVER VALLEY TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PARCEL 225-27-128Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- A TO Z COLLISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FORT MOJAVE BATTERY REMOVAL ACTION.Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10037Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- HANCOCK FARMS IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MOHAVE VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- EPCOR WATER - WILLOW VALLEY/KING STREETPFAS · 1.9 mi
- BARTCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MOHAVE COUNTY - ROAD FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- B-17-22 11DCC1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- B-18-22 27BBC1Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mohave 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 Mohave Valley.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Mohave Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mohave Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mohave Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mohave Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mohave Valley — Mining (13 sites) and Brownfields (70 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.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Mohave 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 Mohave Valley average
Your land is one point inside Mohave Valley
Everything above resolves to Mohave Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mohave County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 Mohave Valley Average
Mohave Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Mohave Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Mohave Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Mohave Valley's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mohave Valley's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mohave Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mohave Valley, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mohave Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mohave Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mohave Valley average
How we know this about Mohave 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 Mohave County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Mohave Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Mohave Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mohave Valley typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Mohave Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mohave Valley typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mohave Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mohave Valley sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mohave Valley?
The federal record around Mohave Valley is a meaningful one — 138 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Mohave Valley?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mohave Valley's scale — its 9a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mohave 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 Mohave Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mohave Valley's own scale — the 8,974 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mohave Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mohave Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mohave Valley's boundary and the 8,974 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mohave Valley's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mohave Valley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mohave Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mohave County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mohave Valley's 8,974 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mohave County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mohave 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 Mohave County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mohave Valley's 8,974 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mohave 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 8,974 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Mohave Valley-wide figureread your own land →