Tolleson, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Tolleson, 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 Tolleson 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 Tolleson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tolleson — the short answer
Tolleson, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 345 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 15
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 26
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~345
- Maricopa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Maricopa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Tolleson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tolleson's 345-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tolleson
Each reading below is measured for Tolleson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTolleson runs about 345 days between hard freezes (read from Maricopa County, the closest normal to Tolleson) — 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
MeasuredTolleson sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Tolleson is in
Tolleson sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tolleson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Maricopa County.
What Grows in Tolleson
Every plant below cleared Tolleson's own zone 9b and its 345-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tolleson?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 26 — 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 Tolleson
Survey cells within 31 miles of Tolleson checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 285 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Tolleson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tolleson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-01-01 09AAANitrate · 400 ft
- HOME DEPOT DC #5643Brownfields · 400 ft
- TOLLESON MAIN CO #143150Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CLARK'S AUTOMOTIVE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- A-01-01 10BBBNitrate · 700 ft
- MOUNTAIN PARK HEALTH CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CIRCLE K #2708872Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- TOLLESON STEEL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- A-01-01 09AACNitrate · 1000 ft
- FUELCO #110Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TOLLESON ELEMENTARY SCHOOL DISTRICT #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- B&B ACCOUNTING - FORMERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tolleson'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 Tolleson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tolleson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tolleson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tolleson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tolleson — Toxics Release Inventory (257 sites) and Nitrate (806 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Tolleson
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 Tolleson average
Your land is one point inside Tolleson
Everything above resolves to Tolleson as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Maricopa County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 city 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 Tolleson Average
Tolleson Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Tolleson
- ●One soil character for all of Tolleson
- ●Frost dates read at Tolleson's scale: Jan 15 to Dec 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tolleson's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tolleson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tolleson, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tolleson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tolleson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tolleson average
How we know this about Tolleson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Maricopa County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Tolleson
When does frost risk typically end in Tolleson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tolleson typically lands around Jan 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Tolleson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tolleson typically arrives around Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 12, so the watching starts about Nov 26 — about 345 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tolleson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tolleson sees about 345 frost-free days — roughly Jan 15 through Dec 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 5 to Dec 12, about 310 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tolleson?
The federal record around Tolleson runs heavier than most — 2,964 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,304), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tolleson?
From about Nov 26 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 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 Dec 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tolleson's scale — its 9b band and its 345-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tolleson'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 Tolleson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tolleson's own scale — the 3,669 acres it covers and 2,964 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tolleson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,964 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tolleson, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tolleson's boundary and the 3,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~345-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tolleson's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Tolleson checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tolleson has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Maricopa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tolleson's 3,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Maricopa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Maricopa 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 Maricopa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tolleson's 3,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tolleson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,669 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tolleson-wide figureread your own land →