Sun Valley, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sun Valley, 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 Sun Valley 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 Sun Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sun Valley — the short answer
Sun Valley, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 20K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 20K 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 Sun Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sun Valley's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sun Valley
Each reading below is measured for Sun Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSun Valley 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
MeasuredSun Valley 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 Sun Valley is in
Sun Valley sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sun Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navajo County.
What Grows in Sun Valley
Every plant below cleared Sun Valley'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 Sun Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sun Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sun Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STEWART SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SUNSHINE SUN VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- FOREST GIFT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- A-18-22 09DCD1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- A-18-22 09DDC1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- A-18-22 16AAB2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- A-18-22 16AAB1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- LEWIS TRADERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HOPI TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- HOLBROOK TRUCK TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- A-19-23 19DCBNitrate · 6.1 mi
- HOLBROOK CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sun Valley'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 Sun Valley.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sun Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sun Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 88 sites within ~10 miles of Sun Valley. 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 Sun Valley
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 Sun Valley average
Your land is one point inside Sun Valley
Everything above resolves to Sun Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 20K 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 Sun Valley Average
Sun Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sun Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Sun Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Sun Valley's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sun Valley's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sun Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sun Valley, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sun Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sun Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sun Valley average
How we know this about Sun Valley
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 Sun Valley’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 Sun Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Sun Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sun Valley typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Sun Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sun Valley typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sun Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sun Valley sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 13, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sun Valley?
The federal record around Sun Valley shows 156 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sun Valley?
From about Sep 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 Oct 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sun Valley's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sun Valley'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 Sun Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sun Valley's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,196 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sun Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sun Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 27 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sun Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sun Valley's boundary and the 20,196 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 Sun Valley'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 Sun Valley's 20,196 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 Sun Valley's 20,196 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sun Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,196 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Sun Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaSun Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides