The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Payson's mid-elevation shelf under the Mogollon Rim — real winter frost and a 7b-8a, 214-237-day season that splits the difference between the low desert's heat and the Rim top's snow; pine-country gardening with monsoon summers. Growers here do well with jalapeno, prickly pear, palo verde, and date palm — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) spans Arizona.
Your yard isn't all of the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson).
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) spans USDA zones 7b-8a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — the short answer
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson): USDA zones 7b-8a, 214–237 frost-free days, in Arizona.
- USDA zones
- 7b-8a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 214–237 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Towns
- 4
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- Town cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
Plants matched to the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)'s USDA zones 7b-8a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)’s USDA zones 7b-8a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground around the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — the ground the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) sits in, read at the only grain the survey publishes.
In the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson), the ground is predominantly Mollisols, at 44% of mapped acres, followed by Aridisols (21%), Entisols (18%) and Alfisols (13%). Six soil orders appear in that record, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Showlow, Chevelon, and Tortugas.
90% of those acres are well drained, and another 3% somewhat excessively drained, 1% excessively drained. Topsoil pH runs 6.6–7.8 in that county’s own record.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
6.6–7.8
Hydric soils
0%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are the record for the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records90% of the mapped acres across the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) are well drained — ground that drains quickly. The survey maps this ground county-wide, so it describes the setting the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) sits in rather than the valley floor alone.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) runs pH 6.6–7.8 — near neutral in the one record covering it.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — and how to grow with it.
Across Gila County, which contains the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson), the federal record holds 847 documented sites, mostly Mining (364), Nitrate (242) and Underground Storage Tanks (186).
That is the containing county's count — this region is a smaller piece of that ground, so it is context, not a reading of any one lot. Open the map outlined to the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson), two things run higher than the national average across the county containing the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — Mining (364 sites) and Superfund (16 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
Everything above resolves to the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7b-8a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) Average
Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b-8a, averaged across Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
- ●One soil character for all of Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)'s 7b-8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) average
How we know this about the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
The boundary: the region's own towns — a footprint finer than any county, because the county average would misread this microclimate. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the towns inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
What hardiness zone is the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)?
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-8a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's own towns. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)'s towns mostly run 220 to 233 frost-free days, median 227 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 4 member towns). That 13-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 4 towns, and each town guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)?
Across the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson), the middle half of member towns see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 27 and Apr 5 (median Apr 1), and their first fall freeze between Nov 11 and Nov 15. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 22, and elevation decides which end of a 9-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)?
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)'s conditions suit plants such as Jalapeno, Prickly Pear, Palo Verde, Date Palm. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) defined?
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) is a true microclimate — smaller than the county that contains it, with a growing reality of its own. So this page is built from the region's own 4 towns, each carrying its own hardiness zone and frost record, rather than from a county average measured somewhere else.
Which states does the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) cover?
The Mogollon Rim Country (Payson) spans Arizona. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Sonoran Desert, Sonoita / Elgin, Lower Colorado River Corridor, White Mountains (Eastern Arizona), Willcox AVA, and Flagstaff & San Francisco Peaks High Country share at least one state with the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)'s own scale — the zone 7b-8a band across its footprint, a median 227-day season across its 4 towns and 847 documented federal contamination records across its one county, 847 of them in Gila County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7b-8a aggregated across all 4 towns in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 4 towns this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 4 towns run 220 to 233 frost-free days, median 227NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 847 documented federal contamination records across its one county, 847 of them in Gila County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 44% Mollisols, topsoil pH 6.6–7.8, area-weighted across its one mapped countyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7b-8afrom Arizona
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 13-day range your ground sits at — 220 days at one extreme, 233 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Mogollon Rim Country (Payson)
State growing guides
Towns in this region
The county containing this region
Other growing regions across Arizona
A warm desert of saguaro and palo verde with mild winters that allow desert citrus, dates, and prickly pear alongside intensive irrigated gardening.
Defined by the TTB's Sonoita American Viticultural Area (27 CFR § 9.97) — Arizona's first AVA, established in 1984 — this high-desert grassland spans Cochise, Pima, and Santa Cruz counties across USDA zones 8a to 9a, where the frost-free season runs roughly 264 to 313 days.
The river towns from Bullhead City to Parker — essentially frost-free 9a-10a bottomland where citrus and winter gardens run while the Mohave high desert a half-hour up the grade freezes.
Arizona's high green country — at the White Mountain towns the committed record reads 6a-7a with a 145-176-day season, mountain gardening closer to Colorado than to the desert two hours down the hill.
Established by the TTB in 2016 across parts of Cochise and Graham Counties in southeastern Arizona, the Willcox AVA spans USDA hardiness zones 8a to 8b with a roughly 264-to-266-day frost-free season.
The cold antithesis of desert Arizona: a ponderosa-pine plateau near 7,000 ft where Flagstaff sits in USDA zone 6a and Bellemont drops to 5b, with only about 150 frost-free days — roughly mid-May last frost to mid-October first frost (Coconino County, api/data/county_data.json). The statewide "zone 9b, near-frost-free" framing is actively wrong here; growers plan around snow, a short cool-season window, and hard frost dates instead of citrus and dates.