Young, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Young, 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 Young 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 Young — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Young — the short answer
Young, Arizona: USDA zone 7b, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 31K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 31K 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 7b is Young's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Young's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Young
Each reading below is measured for Young itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredYoung 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
MeasuredYoung sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Young is in
Young sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Young's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gila County.
What Grows in Young
Every plant below cleared Young's own zone 7b and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Arizona profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Young?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Young
Survey cells within 31 miles of Young checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 365 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Young
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Young. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ADOT - YOUNG MAINTENANCE CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 80165Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 80167Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- HOGHLAND STORE MUSEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PLEASANT VALLEY AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 80161Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 59454Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 80141Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- GILA COUNTY - YOUNG HIGHWAY MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- A-09-13 25ABBNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 80286Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- VALLEY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Young'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 Young.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Young
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Young
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Young, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Young — Mining (11 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Young
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 Young average
Your land is one point inside Young
Everything above resolves to Young as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 31K 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 Young Average
Young Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Young
- ●One soil character for all of Young
- ●Frost dates read at Young's scale: Apr 21 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Young's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Young
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Young, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Young averages can't show:
We read public map data around Young — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Young average
How we know this about Young
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 Young’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 Young
When does frost risk typically end in Young?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Young typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Young?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Young typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Young?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Young sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 18, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Young?
The federal record around Young shows 45 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Young?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Young's scale — its 7b band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Young'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 Young’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Young's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 30,584 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Young's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Young's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Nov 1 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Young, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Young's boundary and the 30,584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Young's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Young 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 Young's 30,584 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gila County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gila 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 Gila County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Young's 30,584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Young you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 30,584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Young-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Wider growing context
What grows across ArizonaYoung sits outside our named growing regions, so Arizona as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides