Mormon Lake, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mormon Lake, 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 Mormon Lake 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 Mormon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mormon Lake — the short answer
Mormon Lake, Arizona: USDA zone 6a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 892 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 892 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 6a is Mormon Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mormon Lake's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mormon Lake
Each reading below is measured for Mormon Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMormon Lake runs about 157 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMormon Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Mormon Lake is in
Mormon Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Mormon Lake'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 Mormon Lake
Every plant below cleared Mormon Lake's own zone 6a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mormon Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Mormon Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Mormon Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 350 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Mormon Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mormon Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USDA FS - COCONINO NF - MORMON LAKE GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- A-18-09 29CAA02Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- A-18-09 29CAANitrate · 1.0 mi
- MORMON LAKE LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MONTEZUMA LODGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- US WEST #127642 - MORMON MOUNTAIN RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- A-19-09 17DCDNitrate · 7.7 mi
- FAA AIRWAY BEACON #9004Underground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- A-16-08 16BADNitrate · 9.8 mi
Measured from Mormon Lake'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 Mormon Lake.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mormon Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Mormon Lake
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 Mormon Lake average
Your land is one point inside Mormon Lake
Everything above resolves to Mormon Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 892 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 Mormon Lake Average
Mormon Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mormon Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Mormon Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Mormon Lake's scale: May 11 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mormon Lake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mormon Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mormon Lake, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mormon Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mormon Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mormon Lake average
How we know this about Mormon Lake
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 Mormon Lake’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 Mormon Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Mormon Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mormon Lake typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Mormon Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mormon Lake typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mormon Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mormon Lake sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Oct 1, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mormon Lake?
The federal record around Mormon Lake is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mormon Lake?
From about Sep 15 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 Oct 15 (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 Oct 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mormon Lake's scale — its 6a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mormon Lake'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 Mormon Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Mormon Lake's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 892 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mormon Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mormon Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 15 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mormon Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mormon Lake's boundary and the 892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mormon Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Mormon Lake 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 Mormon Lake's 892 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 Mormon Lake's 892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mormon Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Mormon Lake-wide figureread your own land →