Collbran, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Collbran, 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 Collbran 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 Collbran — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Collbran — the short answer
Collbran, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 357 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 357 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 5b is Collbran's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Collbran's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Collbran
Each reading below is measured for Collbran itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCollbran runs about 156 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCollbran sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Collbran is in
Collbran sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Collbran's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mesa County.
What Grows in Collbran
Every plant below cleared Collbran's own zone 5b and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Collbran?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Collbran
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Collbran. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Plateau Valley Fire ProtectionUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Central ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- The CreameryUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Valley Ranch And Auto SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Richard Stites PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUREAU OF RECLAMATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Mesa ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Vega State Park Maintenance CompoundUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Keystone II General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Plateau Valley Hospital DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Former Ponds IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Mesa County Shop - Collbran FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
2 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Collbran'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 Collbran.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Collbran
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Collbran
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Collbran
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 Collbran average
Your land is one point inside Collbran
Everything above resolves to Collbran as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 357 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 Collbran Average
Collbran Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Collbran
- ●One soil character for all of Collbran
- ●Frost dates read at Collbran's scale: May 4 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Collbran's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Collbran
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Collbran, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Collbran averages can't show:
We read public map data around Collbran — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Collbran average
How we know this about Collbran
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 Collbran’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 Collbran
When does frost risk typically end in Collbran?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Collbran typically lands around May 4, 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 May 25.
When is the first frost in Collbran?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Collbran typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Collbran?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Collbran sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 23, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Collbran?
The federal record around Collbran is a meaningful one — 15 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Collbran?
From about Sep 7 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 Oct 7 (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 Oct 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Collbran's scale — its 5b band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Collbran'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 Collbran’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Collbran's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 357 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Collbran's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Collbran's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 7 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Collbran, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Collbran's boundary and the 357 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Collbran's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Collbran's 357 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mesa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mesa 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 Mesa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Collbran's 357 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Collbran you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 357 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Collbran-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region
Nearby growing guides