Prescott, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Prescott, 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 Prescott 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 Prescott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Prescott — the short answer
Prescott, Arizona: USDA zone 7b, about 202 days between hard freezes, across 32K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~202
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 32K 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 7b is Prescott's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Prescott's 202-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Prescott
Each reading below is measured for Prescott itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPrescott runs about 202 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPrescott sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Prescott is in
Prescott sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Prescott's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yavapai County.
What Grows in Prescott
Every plant below cleared Prescott's own zone 7b and its 202-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Prescott?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — 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 Prescott
Survey cells within 31 miles of Prescott checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 289 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Prescott
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Prescott. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXTERMINATING SPECIALISTS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WILLOW LAKE ROAD LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GOOD 2 GO STORES #508Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CVS STORE #10147 SEC WILLOW LAKE - WILLOW CREEKBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FRYS FUEL CENTER #77Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRY'S #077-660Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- GALPIN FORD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WILLOW CREEK AUTO SPABrownfields · 1.1 mi
- OWLS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- SUN FASHION DESIGNSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- COPPERSTATE ANALYTICAL LABORATORYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CIRCLE K #2701995Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Prescott'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 Prescott.
Total Sites
406
within ~10 miles of Prescott
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Prescott
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Prescott
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Prescott, Mining runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Prescott. 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 Prescott
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 Prescott average
Your land is one point inside Prescott
Everything above resolves to Prescott as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 32K 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 city 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 Prescott Average
Prescott Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Prescott
- ●One soil character for all of Prescott
- ●Frost dates read at Prescott's scale: Apr 13 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Prescott's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Prescott
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Prescott, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Prescott averages can't show:
We read public map data around Prescott — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Prescott average
How we know this about Prescott
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Prescott’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Prescott
When does frost risk typically end in Prescott?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Prescott typically lands around Apr 13, 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 May 4.
When is the first frost in Prescott?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Prescott typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 202 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Prescott?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Prescott sees about 202 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 18, about 167 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Prescott?
The federal record around Prescott runs heavier than most — 406 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (162), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Prescott?
From about Oct 2 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 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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Prescott's scale — its 7b band and its 202-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Prescott'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 Prescott’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Prescott's own scale — its own ~202-day season between 28°F freezes, the 31,505 acres it covers and 406 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Prescott's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Prescott's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Nov 1 and the ~202-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 406 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Prescott, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Prescott's boundary and the 31,505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~202-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Prescott's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Prescott 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 Prescott's 31,505 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yavapai County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Prescott's 31,505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Prescott you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 31,505 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Prescott-wide figureread your own land →
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