Shonto, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Shonto, 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 Shonto 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 Shonto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shonto — the short answer
Shonto, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 7a is Shonto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shonto's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shonto
Each reading below is measured for Shonto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredShonto runs about 194 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
MeasuredShonto 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 Shonto is in
Shonto sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Shonto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navajo County.
What Grows in Shonto
Every plant below cleared Shonto's own zone 7a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shonto?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Shonto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shonto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHONTO DIP VATSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- 02 040-08.73X10.37Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- USDOI BIA SHONTO PREP SCHBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 02 040-08.52X10.57Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 02 040-08.47X10.29 Shonto PM4Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 02 040-11.20X13.60 [2K-300 SHONTO]Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 02 040-04.40X11.25Nitrate · 4.6 mi
- 02 040-05.38X15.27 [BMOB-4]Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 02 040-04.03X14.68 [2K-301 SHONTO SOUTHEAST]Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 02 041-00.13X07.62Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 02 040-12.31X16.88Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 02 041-02.51X11.09Nitrate · 7.4 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shonto'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 Shonto.
Total Sites
29
within ~10 miles of Shonto
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shonto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shonto, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Shonto. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Shonto
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 Shonto average
Your land is one point inside Shonto
Everything above resolves to Shonto 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 Shonto Average
Shonto Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Shonto
- ●One soil character for all of Shonto
- ●Frost dates read at Shonto's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shonto's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shonto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shonto, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shonto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shonto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shonto average
How we know this about Shonto
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 Shonto’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 Shonto
When does frost risk typically end in Shonto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shonto typically lands around Apr 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 May 9.
When is the first frost in Shonto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shonto typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shonto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shonto sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 15, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shonto?
The federal record around Shonto is a meaningful one — 29 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Superfund record about 0.8 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 Shonto?
From about Sep 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 Oct 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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shonto's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shonto'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 Shonto’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Shonto's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,917 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shonto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shonto's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 29 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shonto, the closest Superfund record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shonto's boundary and the 2,917 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shonto's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shonto's 2,917 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navajo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navajo 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 Navajo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shonto's 2,917 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shonto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,917 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.8 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 Shonto-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaShonto sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides