Padre Ranchitos, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with palo verde, citrus, jalapeno, and date palm — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Padre Ranchitos, 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 Padre Ranchitos 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 Padre Ranchitos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Padre Ranchitos — the short answer
Padre Ranchitos, Arizona: USDA zone 10a, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- Yuma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 186 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 Yuma County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Padre Ranchitos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Padre Ranchitos's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Padre Ranchitos
Each reading below is measured for Padre Ranchitos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPadre Ranchitos runs about 316 days between hard freezes (read from Yuma County, the closest normal to Padre Ranchitos) — 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
MeasuredPadre Ranchitos sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Padre Ranchitos is in
Padre Ranchitos sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Padre Ranchitos's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yuma County.
What Grows in Padre Ranchitos
Plants matched to Padre Ranchitos's USDA zones 10a, 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 Padre Ranchitos?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 11 — 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 Padre Ranchitos
Survey cells within 31 miles of Padre Ranchitos checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 151 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Padre Ranchitos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Padre Ranchitos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USDOJ INS - US BORDER PATROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C-09-23 20BAB2Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF YUMA - DESERT HILLS GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- B&B AMUSEMENT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 11TH ST GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- BINGHAM EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CIRCLE K #1384Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PRODUCERS COTTON OIL - YUMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- RUSSELL HEAT TRANSFER PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MCDONNELL DOUGLAS - FLIGHT OPERATIONS C-3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BOEING AIRCRAFT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Padre Ranchitos'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 Padre Ranchitos.
Total Sites
538
within ~10 miles of Padre Ranchitos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Padre Ranchitos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Padre Ranchitos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Padre Ranchitos, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Padre Ranchitos — Superfund (9 sites) and Nitrate (154 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Padre Ranchitos
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 Padre Ranchitos average
Your land is one point inside Padre Ranchitos
Everything above resolves to Padre Ranchitos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 186 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yuma 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 Padre Ranchitos Average
Padre Ranchitos Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Padre Ranchitos
- ●One soil character for all of Padre Ranchitos
- ●Frost dates read at Padre Ranchitos's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Padre Ranchitos's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Padre Ranchitos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Padre Ranchitos, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Padre Ranchitos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Padre Ranchitos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Padre Ranchitos average
How we know this about Padre Ranchitos
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 Yuma 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 Padre Ranchitos
When does frost risk typically end in Padre Ranchitos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Padre Ranchitos typically lands around Jan 29, 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 Feb 19.
When is the first frost in Padre Ranchitos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Padre Ranchitos typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Padre Ranchitos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Padre Ranchitos sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 27, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Padre Ranchitos?
The federal record around Padre Ranchitos is a meaningful one — 538 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (257), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Padre Ranchitos?
From about Nov 11 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 Dec 11 (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 Dec 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Padre Ranchitos's scale — its 10a band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Padre Ranchitos'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 Padre Ranchitos’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Padre Ranchitos's own scale — the 186 acres it covers and 538 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Padre Ranchitos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 538 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Padre Ranchitos, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Padre Ranchitos's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Padre Ranchitos's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Padre Ranchitos checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Padre Ranchitos has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yuma County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Padre Ranchitos's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yuma 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 Yuma 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 Yuma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Padre Ranchitos's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Padre Ranchitos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Padre Ranchitos-wide figureread your own land →
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