Moab, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moab, 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 Moab 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 Moab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moab — the short answer
Moab, Utah: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Moab's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moab's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moab
Each reading below is measured for Moab itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoab runs about 225 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
MeasuredMoab 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 Moab is in
Moab sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Moab's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grand County.
What Grows in Moab
Every plant below cleared Moab's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moab?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Moab
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moab. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN #53612Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FORMER MOAB STARS FOOD STORE MOABUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FARABEE ADVENTURES INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LA SAL OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AUTO-TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- (D-26-21) 1dbb- 3Nitrate · 1200 ft
- CANYON COUNTY SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OLD STATE ROAD DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MCA THRIFT/FUTURE CITY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ATLAS MINERALS COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- CITY MARKET MOAB #410Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITY MARKET #410Brownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moab'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 Moab.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Moab
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moab
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moab
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moab, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Moab — Mining (16 sites) and Nitrate (42 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 Moab
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 Moab average
Your land is one point inside Moab
Everything above resolves to Moab as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Moab Average
Moab Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Moab
- ●One soil character for all of Moab
- ●Frost dates read at Moab's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moab's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moab
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moab, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moab averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moab average
How we know this about Moab
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Moab’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Moab
When does frost risk typically end in Moab?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moab typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Moab?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moab typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moab?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moab sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 21, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moab?
The federal record around Moab is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Moab?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moab's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moab'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 Moab’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moab's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,076 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moab's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moab's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 4 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moab, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moab's boundary and the 3,076 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moab's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moab's 3,076 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grand County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grand 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 Grand County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moab's 3,076 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moab you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,076 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Moab-wide figureread your own land →
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