Yucca, Arizona, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: jalapeno, palo verde, date palm, and prickly pear. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Yucca, 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 Yucca 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 Yucca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yucca — the short answer
Yucca, Arizona: USDA zone 9b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- Mohave County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Mohave County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Yucca's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yucca's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yucca
Each reading below is measured for Yucca itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsYucca runs about 242 days between hard freezes (read from Mohave County, the closest normal to Yucca) — 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
MeasuredYucca 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 Yucca is in
Yucca sits in the Mojave Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Yucca's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mohave County.
What Grows in Yucca
Plants matched to Yucca's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Yucca?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Yucca
Survey cells within 31 miles of Yucca checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 210 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Yucca
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yucca. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLD SUPER DUPERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PJS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FREEWAY SERVICE CENTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DON GUTHRIE SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- B-17-18 12BDDNitrate · 0.8 mi
- WHITING STATION - I-40Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SAGE MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- B-17-18 12BCDNitrate · 0.9 mi
- ATCHISON TOPEKA & SANTA FEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- B-17-18 12BCANitrate · 1.0 mi
- B-17-18 12ABDNitrate · 1.0 mi
- B-17-18 12BCBNitrate · 1.0 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yucca'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 Yucca.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yucca
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Yucca
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 Yucca average
Your land is one point inside Yucca
Everything above resolves to Yucca as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mohave 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 Yucca Average
Yucca Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Yucca
- ●One soil character for all of Yucca
- ●Frost dates read at Yucca's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yucca's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yucca
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yucca, Arizona — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yucca averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yucca — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yucca average
How we know this about Yucca
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 Mohave 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 Yucca
When does frost risk typically end in Yucca?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yucca typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 11.
When is the first frost in Yucca?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yucca typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yucca?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yucca sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 4, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yucca?
The federal record around Yucca is light — 22 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Yucca?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yucca's scale — its 9b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yucca'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 Yucca’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Yucca's own scale — the 1,432 acres it covers and 22 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yucca's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 22 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yucca, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yucca's boundary and the 1,432 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Yucca's own centroid, the Mojave Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Yucca checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Yucca has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mohave County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yucca's 1,432 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mohave County
- The candidate plant list — Arizona's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Arizona
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mohave 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 Mohave County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yucca's 1,432 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yucca you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,432 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Yucca-wide figureread your own land →
More in Arizona
Nearby growing guides