Oatman, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Oatman, 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 Oatman 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 Oatman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oatman — the short answer
Oatman, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 123 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- 123 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 9b is Oatman's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oatman's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oatman
Each reading below is measured for Oatman itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOatman runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Mohave County, the closest normal to Oatman) — 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
MeasuredOatman sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Oatman is in
Oatman sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Oatman's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mohave County.
What Grows in Oatman
Plants matched to Oatman's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Oatman?
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 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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Oatman
Survey cells within 31 miles of Oatman checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 206 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Oatman
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oatman. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLM/MCHEFFY GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- United EasternMining · 750 ft
- BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT - ABANDONED PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Big Jim MineMining · 0.8 mi
- United Western MineMining · 0.8 mi
- BluebirdMining · 1.1 mi
- Gold Road MineMining · 1.2 mi
- Pioneer MineMining · 1.5 mi
- Gold Ore ExtensionMining · 1.8 mi
- VACANT GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- VivianMining · 2.3 mi
- Best Bet MineMining · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oatman'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 Oatman.
Total Sites
22
within ~10 miles of Oatman
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oatman
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oatman
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •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 Oatman
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 Oatman average
Your land is one point inside Oatman
Everything above resolves to Oatman as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 123 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 Oatman Average
Oatman Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Oatman
- ●One soil character for all of Oatman
- ●Frost dates read at Oatman's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oatman's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oatman
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oatman, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oatman averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oatman — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oatman average
How we know this about Oatman
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 Oatman
When does frost risk typically end in Oatman?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oatman 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 Oatman?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oatman 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 Oatman?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oatman 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 Oatman?
The federal record around Oatman is a meaningful one — 22 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (13), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Oatman?
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 Oatman's scale — its 9b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oatman'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 Oatman’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oatman's own scale — the 123 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oatman's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oatman, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oatman's boundary and the 123 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Oatman's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Oatman checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oatman 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 Oatman's 123 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mohave County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- 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 Oatman's 123 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oatman you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 123 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Oatman-wide figureread your own land →
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