San Manuel, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Manuel, 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 San Manuel 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 San Manuel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Manuel — the short answer
San Manuel, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K 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 San Manuel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Manuel's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Manuel
Each reading below is measured for San Manuel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSan Manuel runs about 316 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
MeasuredSan Manuel 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 San Manuel is in
San Manuel sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at San Manuel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pinal County.
What Grows in San Manuel
Every plant below cleared San Manuel's own zone 9a and its 316-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Manuel?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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.
Documented around San Manuel
Survey cells within 31 miles of San Manuel checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 381 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near San Manuel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Manuel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAN MANUEL MAIN CO #125280Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GIANT #671Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4943Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SAN MANUEL HEALTHCARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FASTSTOP #1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SALT N PEPPER #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- QUICK'S SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BHP COPPER NORTH AMERICA SAN MANUEL OPERATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- D-10-17 05BCANitrate · 1.0 mi
- SAN MANUEL HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SAN MANUEL MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- San Manual ConcentratorMining · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Manuel'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 San Manuel.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of San Manuel
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Manuel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Manuel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Manuel, Mining runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of San Manuel. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in San Manuel
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 San Manuel average
Your land is one point inside San Manuel
Everything above resolves to San Manuel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 San Manuel Average
San Manuel Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across San Manuel
- ●One soil character for all of San Manuel
- ●Frost dates read at San Manuel's scale: Jan 31 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Manuel's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Manuel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Manuel, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Manuel averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Manuel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Manuel average
How we know this about San Manuel
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 San Manuel’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 San Manuel
When does frost risk typically end in San Manuel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Manuel typically lands around Jan 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in San Manuel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Manuel typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Manuel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Manuel sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Jan 31 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 21 to Nov 29, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Manuel?
The federal record around San Manuel runs heavier than most — 142 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 San Manuel?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Manuel's scale — its 9a band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Manuel'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 San Manuel’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at San Manuel's own scale — its own ~316-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,270 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Manuel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- San Manuel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 31 and Dec 13 and the ~316-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Manuel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Manuel's boundary and the 13,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~316-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Manuel's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around San Manuel 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 San Manuel's 13,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pinal County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pinal 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 Pinal County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Manuel's 13,270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Manuel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,270 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 San Manuel-wide figureread your own land →
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