Peridot, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Peridot, 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 Peridot 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 Peridot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peridot — the short answer
Peridot, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 9a is Peridot's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peridot's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peridot
Each reading below is measured for Peridot itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeridot runs about 296 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
MeasuredPeridot sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Peridot is in
Peridot sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Peridot's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Gila County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Peridot
Every plant below cleared Peridot's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peridot?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Peridot
Survey cells within 31 miles of Peridot checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 388 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peridot
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peridot. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAN CARLOS HERBICIDE DRUMSSuperfund · 3.6 mi
- SAN CARLOS HERBICIDE SITESuperfund · 3.6 mi
- Copper Blossom M S 3664Mining · 5.0 mi
- Peacock ClaimsMining · 5.2 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 7.2 mi
- Copper ProspectMining · 7.3 mi
- USDOI - COOLIDGE DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- D-03-18 05CDCNitrate · 8.5 mi
- Metate Manganese LeaseMining · 9.1 mi
- Unnamed ProspectsMining · 9.1 mi
Measured from Peridot'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 Peridot.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Peridot
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peridot
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peridot
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.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Peridot
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 Peridot average
Your land is one point inside Peridot
Everything above resolves to Peridot as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Peridot Average
Peridot Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Peridot
- ●One soil character for all of Peridot
- ●Frost dates read at Peridot's scale: Feb 8 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peridot's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peridot
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peridot, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peridot averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peridot — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peridot average
How we know this about Peridot
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 Peridot’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 Peridot
When does frost risk typically end in Peridot?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peridot typically lands around Feb 8, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Peridot?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peridot typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peridot?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peridot sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 8 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 1 to Nov 17, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peridot?
The federal record around Peridot is a meaningful one — 12 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (7), the nearest Superfund record about 3.6 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 Peridot?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peridot's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peridot'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 Peridot’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peridot's own scale — its own ~296-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,495 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peridot's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peridot's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 8 and Dec 1 and the ~296-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peridot, the closest Superfund record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peridot's boundary and the 3,495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Peridot sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Peridot 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 Peridot's 3,495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peridot's 3,495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peridot you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,495 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 3.6 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 Peridot-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Nearby growing guides