Rock Point, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Rock Point, 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 Rock Point 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 Rock Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rock Point — the short answer
Rock Point, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 7a is Rock Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rock Point's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rock Point
Each reading below is measured for Rock Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRock Point runs about 196 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRock Point sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Rock Point is in
Rock Point sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rock Point's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Apache County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rock Point
Every plant below cleared Rock Point's own zone 7a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rock Point?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Rock Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rock Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09 036-07.25X02.40Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 09 036-07.20X02.20Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 09 036-07.40X01.70Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- USDOI BIA ROCK POINT COMMUNITY SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- 09 036-04.23X07.68Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 09 021-01.83X16.22Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 09 036-00.82X08.84Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- 09 036-10.89X12.14Nitrate · 9.5 mi
Measured from Rock Point'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 Rock Point.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rock Point
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Rock Point
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 Rock Point average
Your land is one point inside Rock Point
Everything above resolves to Rock Point as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Rock Point Average
Rock Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rock Point
- ●One soil character for all of Rock Point
- ●Frost dates read at Rock Point's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rock Point's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rock Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rock Point, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rock Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rock Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rock Point average
How we know this about Rock Point
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 Rock Point’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 Rock Point
When does frost risk typically end in Rock Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Point typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Rock Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rock Point typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rock Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rock Point sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rock Point?
The federal record around Rock Point is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rock Point?
From about Sep 25 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 Oct 25 (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 Oct 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rock Point's scale — its 7a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rock Point'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 Rock Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rock Point's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,061 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rock Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rock Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rock Point, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rock Point's boundary and the 9,061 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rock Point sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rock Point's 9,061 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Apache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Apache 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 Apache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rock Point's 9,061 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rock Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,061 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Rock Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaRock Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides