Growing Beets in Arizona: Soil, Sowing and Bolting
Arizona’s low desert can grow good beets, but the two threats aren’t cold and heat working together the way they do in most states.
Gardening in Arizona
Everything we have worked out for Arizona: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Phoenix, the last spring freeze falls around no freeze in most years; a rare cold snap can bring 32F between late December and mid January and the first fall freeze falls around no reliable fall freeze; see the note, USDA zones 4b-10b, 8,014 growing degree days in the year.
Heat, not frost, is what shortens the season here: above 86 °F tomato pollen goes sterile, so growers run a spring crop and an autumn one rather than a single long season. Garlic is the awkward one: only 0 weeks below 40 °F, where it needs six to split into cloves. Chill the cloves before planting, or grow a softneck type.
Elsewhere on the property in Arizona: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
When to Plant Potatoes in Arizona: Counting Back From Your Last Frost
For most of Arizona’s low desert, including Phoenix, there’s no last frost date worth counting back from.
Harvesting and Storing Potatoes in Arizona
In low-desert Arizona, potatoes come out of the ground in late spring, before summer heat shuts the plant down, not in fall after a frost.
Potato Varieties That Suit Arizona
The short answer: in Arizona’s low desert, the potato varieties that work are the early-season ones, because that’s the only class with any chance of…
Growing Carrots in Arizona: Soil, Sowing and Forked Roots
Carrots can grow well in Arizona, but the answer depends on which soil you’re working with and which part of the state you’re in.
Growing Peppers in Arizona: Fruit Set, Heat and Timing
Phoenix racks up an average of 168.9 days a year at or above 90 F. That single number explains why pepper timing in Arizona has almost nothing to do with…
Pepper Varieties That Ripen in a Arizona Season
In most of Arizona’s low desert, pepper timing has almost nothing to do with frost and almost everything to do with heat.
Growing Parsnips in Arizona: Will They Sweeten?
In the low desert around Phoenix, parsnips will grow just fine in the soil. What they won’t do is sweeten, because the frost that converts starch into…
Watering Through a Dry Spell in Arizona
Arizona’s growing season runs on two brutal numbers: almost no rain in early summer, and months of heat that pull moisture out of the ground almost as…
Watering Pots and Containers in Arizona
Arizona gardens face a stretch where the sky delivers almost nothing and the thermometer barely lets up: June brings just 0.02 inches of rain while the…