Solomon, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Solomon, 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 Solomon 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 Solomon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Solomon — the short answer
Solomon, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 133 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 133 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 8b is Solomon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Solomon's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Solomon
Each reading below is measured for Solomon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSolomon runs about 276 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
MeasuredSolomon sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Solomon is in
Solomon sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Solomon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Graham County is mostly Madrean Archipelago. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Solomon
Every plant below cleared Solomon's own zone 8b and its 276-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Solomon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Solomon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Solomon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 438 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Solomon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Solomon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RANCHERO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- GRAHAM COUNTY APN #10319043Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- ARIZONA ARMY NATIONAL GUARD SAFFORD RANGESuperfund · 750 ft
- SOLOMON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- D-07-26 13DCD3Nitrate · 2200 ft
- FREEPORT MINERAL CORPORATION - CENTRAL ANALYTICAL SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- IVANHOE TRAILER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF SAFFORD - MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY - SAFFORD FUEL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- SAFFORD AGRICULTURE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 75843Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- ADOT - SAFFORD #1 MAINTENANCE CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Solomon'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 Solomon.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Solomon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Solomon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Solomon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Solomon, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Solomon. 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 Solomon
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 Solomon average
Your land is one point inside Solomon
Everything above resolves to Solomon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 133 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 Solomon Average
Solomon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Solomon
- ●One soil character for all of Solomon
- ●Frost dates read at Solomon's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Solomon's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Solomon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Solomon, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Solomon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Solomon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Solomon average
How we know this about Solomon
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 Solomon’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 Solomon
When does frost risk typically end in Solomon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Solomon typically lands around Feb 23, 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 Mar 16.
When is the first frost in Solomon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Solomon typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 276 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Solomon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Solomon sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 12, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Solomon?
The federal record around Solomon is a meaningful one — 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Solomon?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Solomon's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Solomon'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 Solomon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Solomon's own scale — its own ~276-day season between 28°F freezes, the 133 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Solomon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Solomon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 23 and Nov 26 and the ~276-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Solomon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Solomon's boundary and the 133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Solomon sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Solomon 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 Solomon's 133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Graham County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Graham 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 Graham County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Solomon's 133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Solomon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 133 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Solomon-wide figureread your own land →
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