Topawa, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Topawa, 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 Topawa 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 Topawa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Topawa — the short answer
Topawa, Arizona: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Pima County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Pima County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Topawa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Topawa's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Topawa
Each reading below is measured for Topawa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTopawa runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Pima County, the closest normal to Topawa) — 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
MeasuredTopawa 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 Topawa is in
Topawa sits in the Sonoran Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Topawa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pima County.
What Grows in Topawa
Every plant below cleared Topawa's own zone 9a and its 313-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Topawa?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Topawa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Topawa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- D-19-05 03BABNitrate · 1700 ft
- D-19-05 03DBD2Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- D-19-05 05ACANitrate · 1.1 mi
- D-18-05 24BBBNitrate · 3.7 mi
- D-18-04 14CAANitrate · 5.7 mi
- D-18-05 07BBANitrate · 5.9 mi
- D-18-05 05BBANitrate · 6.3 mi
- D-17-06 31DAA1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- D-17-05 35AADNitrate · 7.5 mi
- D-20-04 02BAB2Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- D-20-04 02BAB1Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- D-20-05 12ABDNitrate · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Topawa'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 Topawa.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Topawa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Topawa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Topawa. 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 Topawa
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 Topawa average
Your land is one point inside Topawa
Everything above resolves to Topawa as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pima County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Topawa Average
Topawa Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Topawa
- ●One soil character for all of Topawa
- ●Frost dates read at Topawa's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Topawa's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Topawa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Topawa, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Topawa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Topawa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Topawa average
How we know this about Topawa
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 Pima 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 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 Topawa
When does frost risk typically end in Topawa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Topawa typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Topawa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Topawa 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 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Topawa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Topawa sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 29, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Topawa?
The federal record around Topawa shows 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Topawa?
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 Topawa's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Topawa'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 Topawa’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Topawa's own scale — the 3,295 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Topawa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Topawa, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Topawa's boundary and the 3,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Topawa's own centroid, the Sonoran Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Topawa has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pima County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Topawa's 3,295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pima County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pima 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 Pima County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Topawa's 3,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Topawa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,295 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Topawa-wide figureread your own land →