Wilhoit, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Wilhoit, 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 Wilhoit 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 Wilhoit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wilhoit — the short answer
Wilhoit, Arizona: USDA zone 8b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Wilhoit's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilhoit's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wilhoit
Each reading below is measured for Wilhoit itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWilhoit runs about 246 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWilhoit 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 Wilhoit is in
Wilhoit sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Wilhoit's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yavapai County.
What Grows in Wilhoit
Every plant below cleared Wilhoit's own zone 8b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wilhoit?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Wilhoit
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wilhoit checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 276 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wilhoit
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wilhoit. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 205-15-004CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- B-12H03 32DCB1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- B-13-04 35AB UNSURVNitrate · 2.3 mi
- B-12H03 30BCBNitrate · 2.4 mi
- BeehiveMining · 2.7 mi
- B-13-04 27AC UNSURVNitrate · 3.5 mi
- Mint ShaftMining · 3.5 mi
- B-13-04 22DD UNSURVNitrate · 3.6 mi
- B-12-04 26AB UNSURVNitrate · 3.7 mi
- B-12-03 30BDDNitrate · 3.7 mi
- B-12-04 09DB UNSURVNitrate · 3.7 mi
- TUFA TAVERNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilhoit'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 Wilhoit.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Wilhoit
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wilhoit
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wilhoit
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilhoit, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wilhoit — Mining (105 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Wilhoit
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 Wilhoit average
Your land is one point inside Wilhoit
Everything above resolves to Wilhoit as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Wilhoit Average
Wilhoit Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wilhoit
- ●One soil character for all of Wilhoit
- ●Frost dates read at Wilhoit's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilhoit's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wilhoit
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilhoit, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilhoit averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilhoit — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilhoit average
How we know this about Wilhoit
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 Wilhoit’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 Wilhoit
When does frost risk typically end in Wilhoit?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilhoit typically lands around Mar 22, 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 Apr 12.
When is the first frost in Wilhoit?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wilhoit typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wilhoit?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilhoit sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Nov 9, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilhoit?
The federal record around Wilhoit runs heavier than most — 154 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles 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 Wilhoit?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wilhoit's scale — its 8b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilhoit'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 Wilhoit’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Wilhoit's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,040 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilhoit's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilhoit's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 23 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wilhoit, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wilhoit's boundary and the 10,040 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wilhoit's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wilhoit 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 Wilhoit's 10,040 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yavapai County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yavapai 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 Yavapai County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wilhoit's 10,040 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wilhoit you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,040 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 Wilhoit-wide figureread your own land →
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