Alamosa East, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alamosa East, 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 Alamosa East 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 Alamosa East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alamosa East — the short answer
Alamosa East, Colorado: USDA zone 4b, about 125 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~125
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 4b is Alamosa East's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alamosa East's 125-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alamosa East
Each reading below is measured for Alamosa East itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlamosa East runs about 125 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlamosa East sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Alamosa East is in
Alamosa East sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Alamosa East's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alamosa County.
What Grows in Alamosa East
Every plant below cleared Alamosa East's own zone 4b and its 125-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alamosa East?
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 Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Alamosa East
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alamosa East. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US Bureau Of ReclamationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ALAMOSA CITY OFPFAS · 0.9 mi
- Loaf N Jug #10Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Closed StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Broadway ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ARMANDO VIGILBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Gasamat Of ColoradoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Alta Convenience #3301Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Texaco VideoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Alamosa Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VALLEY COLLISION AND KUSTOM PAINTING INCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- ALAMOSA ASBESTOS WALSH HOTELSuperfund · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alamosa East'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 Alamosa East.
Total Sites
155
within ~10 miles of Alamosa East
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alamosa East
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alamosa East
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alamosa East, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of Alamosa East. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Alamosa East
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 Alamosa East average
Your land is one point inside Alamosa East
Everything above resolves to Alamosa East as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Alamosa East Average
Alamosa East Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Alamosa East
- ●One soil character for all of Alamosa East
- ●Frost dates read at Alamosa East's scale: May 23 to Sep 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alamosa East's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alamosa East
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alamosa East, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alamosa East averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alamosa East — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alamosa East average
How we know this about Alamosa East
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 Alamosa East’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 Alamosa East
When does frost risk typically end in Alamosa East?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alamosa East typically lands around May 23, 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 Jun 13.
When is the first frost in Alamosa East?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alamosa East typically arrives around Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 11, so the watching starts about Aug 26 — about 125 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alamosa East?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alamosa East sees about 125 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Sep 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 11, about 90 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alamosa East?
The federal record around Alamosa East is a meaningful one — 155 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Alamosa East?
With about 125 frost-free days between hard freezes, Alamosa East rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 153 to 181 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Alamosa East's scale — its 4b band and its 125-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alamosa East'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 Alamosa East’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alamosa East's own scale — its own ~125-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,083 acres it covers and 155 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alamosa East's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alamosa East's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Sep 25 and the ~125-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 155 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alamosa East, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alamosa East's boundary and the 2,083 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~125-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alamosa East's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alamosa East's 2,083 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alamosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alamosa County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Alamosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alamosa East's 2,083 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alamosa East you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,083 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 Alamosa East-wide figureread your own land →
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