Apple Valley, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Apple Valley, 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 Apple Valley 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 Apple Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apple Valley — the short answer
Apple Valley, Utah: USDA zone 7b, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 25K 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 Apple Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apple Valley's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apple Valley
Each reading below is measured for Apple Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApple Valley runs about 226 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
MeasuredApple Valley 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 Apple Valley is in
Apple Valley sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Apple Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Washington County is mostly Mojave Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Apple Valley
Every plant below cleared Apple Valley's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apple Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Apple Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apple Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LITTLE CREEK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Caliente #5Mining · 3.8 mi
- U.S.WEST 671669 LITTLE CREEK RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- (C-42-10) 7bdd- 1Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- HAMMON TRUCKING, INC.Brownfields · 7.5 mi
- FORESTWOOD INDUSTRIAL INCToxics Release Inventory · 7.7 mi
- BRENTWOOD IND. INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 7.9 mi
- JUNCTION MARKET XUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- HURRICANE CITYPFAS · 8.7 mi
- B-42-06 31CCCNitrate · 8.7 mi
- ZION CANYON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- B-41-06 06BADNitrate · 9.2 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apple Valley'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 Apple Valley.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Apple Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apple Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apple Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Apple Valley
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 Apple Valley average
Your land is one point inside Apple Valley
Everything above resolves to Apple Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K 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 Apple Valley Average
Apple Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Apple Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Apple Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Apple Valley's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apple Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apple Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apple Valley, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apple Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apple Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apple Valley average
How we know this about Apple Valley
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 Apple Valley’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 Apple Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Apple Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Valley typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Apple Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Valley typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apple Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apple Valley sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 27, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apple Valley?
The federal record around Apple Valley shows 20 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Apple Valley?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apple Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apple Valley'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 Apple Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Apple Valley's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,419 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apple Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apple Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 10 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apple Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apple Valley's boundary and the 25,419 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Apple Valley sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apple Valley's 25,419 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apple Valley's 25,419 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apple Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,419 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Apple Valley-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahApple Valley sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides