Morenci, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morenci, 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 Morenci 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 Morenci — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morenci — the short answer
Morenci, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 593 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 593 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 Morenci's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morenci's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morenci
Each reading below is measured for Morenci itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorenci runs about 282 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
MeasuredMorenci 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 Morenci is in
Morenci sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Morenci's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Greenlee County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Morenci
Every plant below cleared Morenci's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morenci?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Morenci
Survey cells within 31 miles of Morenci checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 454 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Morenci
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morenci. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FREEPORT-MCMORAN - MORENCI OPERATIONS - TIRE BURIALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FREEPORT-MCMORAN - MORENCI OPERATIONS - TIRE BURIALToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- NACCARATIS CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Morenci MillMining · 0.9 mi
- (Facility) Morenci Copper SmelterMining · 0.9 mi
- COX PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Silver King MineMining · 1.1 mi
- Hormeyer MineMining · 1.2 mi
- MORENCI SCHOOL DISTRICT - BUS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MORENCI MINE TAILINGS AREASuperfund · 1.3 mi
- BURKS AUTO/V. WATERS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PHELPS DODGE - MORENCI - UST FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morenci'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 Morenci.
Total Sites
109
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morenci
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morenci, Mining runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of Morenci. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Morenci
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 Morenci average
Your land is one point inside Morenci
Everything above resolves to Morenci as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 593 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 Morenci Average
Morenci Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Morenci
- ●One soil character for all of Morenci
- ●Frost dates read at Morenci's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morenci's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morenci
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morenci, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morenci averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morenci — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morenci average
How we know this about Morenci
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 Morenci’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 Morenci
When does frost risk typically end in Morenci?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morenci typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Morenci?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morenci typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morenci?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morenci sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morenci?
The federal record around Morenci runs heavier than most — 109 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (80), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles 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 Morenci?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morenci's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morenci'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 Morenci’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Morenci's own scale — its own ~282-day season between 28°F freezes, the 593 acres it covers and 109 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morenci's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morenci's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 20 and Nov 29 and the ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 109 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morenci, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morenci's boundary and the 593 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Morenci sits in the Madrean Archipelago — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Morenci 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 Morenci's 593 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greenlee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greenlee 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 Greenlee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morenci's 593 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morenci you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 593 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Morenci-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaMorenci sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.