Woodruff, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Woodruff, 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 Woodruff 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 Woodruff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Woodruff — the short answer
Woodruff, Arizona: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Woodruff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Woodruff's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Woodruff
Each reading below is measured for Woodruff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWoodruff runs about 197 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
MeasuredWoodruff 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 Woodruff is in
Woodruff sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Woodruff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navajo County.
What Grows in Woodruff
Every plant below cleared Woodruff's own zone 7a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Woodruff?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Woodruff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Woodruff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-16-22 17CCDNitrate · 1.4 mi
- WOODRUFF MICROWAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AT&T - HOLBROOK AZ1850Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- A-17-22 17DDBNitrate · 5.3 mi
- HOLBROOK CO #127618Underground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- HOLBROOK CITY OFPFAS · 7.3 mi
- RAINBOW FOREST STONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- US NATL PARK SERVICE PETRIFIED FOREST NPToxics Release Inventory · 7.6 mi
- A-17-21 16ADBNitrate · 7.7 mi
- PFFJ ARIZONA DIV FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- PFFJ, LLC--ARIZONA DIVISION FARMToxics Release Inventory · 7.9 mi
- USDOI NPS - PETRIFIED FOREST NATIONAL PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Woodruff'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 Woodruff.
Total Sites
28
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Woodruff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Woodruff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Woodruff — Nitrate (14 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Woodruff
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 Woodruff average
Your land is one point inside Woodruff
Everything above resolves to Woodruff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Woodruff Average
Woodruff Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Woodruff
- ●One soil character for all of Woodruff
- ●Frost dates read at Woodruff's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Woodruff's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Woodruff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Woodruff, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Woodruff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Woodruff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Woodruff average
How we know this about Woodruff
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 Woodruff’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 Woodruff
When does frost risk typically end in Woodruff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Woodruff typically lands around Apr 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 May 6.
When is the first frost in Woodruff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Woodruff typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Woodruff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Woodruff sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 15, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Woodruff?
The federal record around Woodruff shows 28 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Woodruff?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Woodruff's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Woodruff'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 Woodruff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Woodruff's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,692 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Woodruff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Woodruff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 29 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Woodruff, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Woodruff's boundary and the 3,692 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Woodruff'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 Woodruff's 3,692 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 Woodruff's 3,692 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Woodruff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,692 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Woodruff-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaWoodruff sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides