Quartzsite, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Quartzsite, 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 Quartzsite 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 Quartzsite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Quartzsite — the short answer
Quartzsite, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 18
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 29
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- La Paz County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 23K 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 La Paz County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Quartzsite's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quartzsite's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quartzsite
Each reading below is measured for Quartzsite itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsQuartzsite runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from La Paz County, the closest normal to Quartzsite) — 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
MeasuredQuartzsite 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 Quartzsite is in
Quartzsite sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Quartzsite's own centroid rather than borrowed from La Paz County.
What Grows in Quartzsite
Every plant below cleared Quartzsite's own zone 9b and its 345-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quartzsite?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Quartzsite
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quartzsite. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLYS RESTURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- QUIK CHEK MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- WELCOME RV PARKSuperfund · 400 ft
- HI ALI MOTELSuperfund · 400 ft
- EXXON - SHAY OIL CO INC EXXON SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- B-04-19 21DACNitrate · 2100 ft
- B-04-19 22CDANitrate · 2300 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6649Brownfields · 2300 ft
- B-04-19 28ABC2Nitrate · 2300 ft
- ED'S SALES & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PASSMORE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- B-04-19 21ADA1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quartzsite'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 Quartzsite.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Quartzsite
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quartzsite
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quartzsite
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quartzsite, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Quartzsite — Mining (39 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Quartzsite
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 Quartzsite average
Your land is one point inside Quartzsite
Everything above resolves to Quartzsite as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from La Paz 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 Quartzsite Average
Quartzsite Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Quartzsite
- ●One soil character for all of Quartzsite
- ●Frost dates read at Quartzsite's scale: Jan 18 to Dec 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quartzsite's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quartzsite
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quartzsite, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quartzsite averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quartzsite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quartzsite average
How we know this about Quartzsite
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 La Paz 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 Quartzsite
When does frost risk typically end in Quartzsite?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quartzsite typically lands around Jan 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Quartzsite?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quartzsite typically arrives around Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 15, so the watching starts about Nov 29 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quartzsite?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quartzsite sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 18 through Dec 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 8 to Dec 15, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quartzsite?
The federal record around Quartzsite runs heavier than most — 96 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Quartzsite?
From about Nov 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Quartzsite's scale — its 9b band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quartzsite'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 Quartzsite’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Quartzsite's own scale — the 23,230 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quartzsite's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quartzsite, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quartzsite's boundary and the 23,230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~345-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Quartzsite's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Quartzsite has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom La Paz County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quartzsite's 23,230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Paz County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom La Paz 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 La Paz County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quartzsite's 23,230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quartzsite you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,230 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 Quartzsite-wide figureread your own land →
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