Capulin, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Capulin, 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 Capulin 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 Capulin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Capulin — the short answer
Capulin, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 606 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 606 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 5a is Capulin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Capulin's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Capulin
Each reading below is measured for Capulin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCapulin runs about 133 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
MeasuredCapulin sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Capulin is in
Capulin sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Capulin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Conejos County.
What Grows in Capulin
Every plant below cleared Capulin's own zone 5a and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Capulin?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Capulin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Capulin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Choke Cherry GeneralUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NA03600835BCC2Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- NA03600802DCNitrate · 7.6 mi
- RIO GRANDE INNBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- Gibson Petroleum CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- SAN LUIS VALLEY HEALTH CONEJOS COUNTY HOSPITALBrownfields · 7.9 mi
- Dell F DuranUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- Alta Convenience #5320Underground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- La Jara Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- Monte CornumUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7022Brownfields · 7.9 mi
- North Conejos School District 1jUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Capulin'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 Capulin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Capulin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Capulin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Capulin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Capulin. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Capulin
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 Capulin average
Your land is one point inside Capulin
Everything above resolves to Capulin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 606 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 Capulin Average
Capulin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Capulin
- ●One soil character for all of Capulin
- ●Frost dates read at Capulin's scale: May 20 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Capulin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Capulin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Capulin, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Capulin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Capulin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Capulin average
How we know this about Capulin
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 Capulin’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 Capulin
When does frost risk typically end in Capulin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Capulin typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Capulin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Capulin typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Capulin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Capulin sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 16, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Capulin?
The federal record around Capulin is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Capulin?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Capulin 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Capulin's scale — its 5a band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Capulin'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 Capulin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Capulin's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 606 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Capulin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Capulin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Sep 30 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Capulin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Capulin's boundary and the 606 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Capulin'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 Capulin's 606 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Conejos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Conejos 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 Conejos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Capulin's 606 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Capulin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 606 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Capulin-wide figureread your own land →
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