Naco, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Naco, 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 Naco 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 Naco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Naco — the short answer
Naco, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 267 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~267
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Naco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Naco's 267-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Naco
Each reading below is measured for Naco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNaco runs about 267 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
MeasuredNaco 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 Naco is in
Naco sits in the Madrean Archipelago — EPA Level III, inside the wider Southern Semi-arid Highlands. That is read at Naco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cochise County.
What Grows in Naco
Every plant below cleared Naco's own zone 8b and its 267-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Naco?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Naco
Survey cells within 31 miles of Naco checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 442 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Naco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Naco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-24-24 17ABBNitrate · 1700 ft
- GOAR RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- D-24-24 17CDANitrate · 2400 ft
- J R SHARPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- D-24-24 18ADDNitrate · 0.6 mi
- D-24-24 08CBANitrate · 0.9 mi
- D-24-24 18DBB2Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- USDHS - USC&BP - NACO BORDER PATROL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ROGERS BORDER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- D-24-24 15CCCNitrate · 1.6 mi
- D-24-24 05AAANitrate · 1.8 mi
- D-24-23 13ABD1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Naco'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 Naco.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of Naco
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Naco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Naco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Naco, Mining runs higher than the national average — 81 sites within ~10 miles of Naco. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Naco
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 Naco average
Your land is one point inside Naco
Everything above resolves to Naco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Naco Average
Naco Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Naco
- ●One soil character for all of Naco
- ●Frost dates read at Naco's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Naco's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Naco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Naco, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Naco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Naco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Naco average
How we know this about Naco
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 Naco’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 Naco
When does frost risk typically end in Naco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Naco typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Naco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Naco typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 267 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Naco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Naco sees about 267 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 11, about 232 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Naco?
The federal record around Naco runs heavier than most — 163 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (81), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Naco?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Naco's scale — its 8b band and its 267-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Naco'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 Naco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Naco's own scale — its own ~267-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,068 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Naco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Naco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 25 and the ~267-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Naco, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Naco's boundary and the 2,068 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~267-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Naco's own centroid, the Madrean ArchipelagoUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Naco 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 Naco's 2,068 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 Naco's 2,068 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Naco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,068 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Naco-wide figureread your own land →