Archuleta County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Archuleta County lies within the Four Corners / Southwest Colorado — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Archuleta County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Archuleta County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Archuleta County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Archuleta County — the short answer
Archuleta County, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 864K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 864K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6a is Archuleta County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Archuleta County's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Archuleta County
Across a year, Archuleta County accumulates about 1,654 growing degree days above 50°F, about 178 fewer than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 30 of Colorado’s 64 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Archuleta County
Across Archuleta County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Needleton, Snowdon, and Carracas are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Archuleta County
The USDA soil survey maps 89% of Archuleta County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 3% excessively drained, 1% poorly drained.
Needleton is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Snowdon (7%) and Carracas (4%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Archuleta County
Each reading below is measured for Archuleta County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Archuleta County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Archuleta County runs about pH 5.5–7.0, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredArchuleta County runs about 150 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
MeasuredArchuleta County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Archuleta County is in
Archuleta County sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Archuleta County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Archuleta County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 150-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile.
Is it too late to plant in Archuleta County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (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 gets applied to farmland in Archuleta County
USGS estimates 1,179 lb of 2,4-d on Archuleta County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,000 lb) and Atrazine (428 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Archuleta County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Archuleta County — 170 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
There's a meaningful federal record across Archuleta County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Archuleta County
Closest first, across Archuleta County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UPPER SAN JUAN HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- DILLON COMPANIES, LLC - CITY MARKET #445Brownfields · 3.9 mi
- City Market #245Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- PINE RIDGE EXTENDED CARE CENTERBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- Golf Course Maintenance FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Fairfield Communities IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #5003Brownfields · 4.0 mi
- Turkey Springs Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7617Brownfields · 4.2 mi
- TOWN OF PAGOSA SPRINGS EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE FACILITYBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- Chimney Rock RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Pagosa Springs Golf ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Archuleta County'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 Archuleta County.
Sources Checked
across Archuleta County
Severity Distribution
across Archuleta County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Archuleta County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 104 sites across Archuleta County. 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 Archuleta County
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 Archuleta County average
Your land is one point inside Archuleta County
Everything above resolves to Archuleta County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 864K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Archuleta County Average
Archuleta County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Archuleta County
- ●One soil character for all of Archuleta County
- ●Frost dates read at Archuleta County's scale: May 10 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Archuleta County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Archuleta County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Archuleta County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Archuleta County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Archuleta County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Archuleta County average
How we know this about Archuleta County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Archuleta County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Archuleta County
When does frost risk typically end in Archuleta County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Archuleta County typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
How long is the growing season in Archuleta County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Archuleta County sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 23, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Archuleta County?
The federal record around Archuleta County is a meaningful one — 170 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Archuleta County's scale — its 6a band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Archuleta County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Colorado's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Archuleta County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Archuleta County's own scale — its own ~150-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 170 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Archuleta County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Archuleta County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Archuleta CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 170 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 3.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Archuleta County's boundary and the 864,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Archuleta County sitting wholly inside the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Archuleta County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Archuleta County — the ~150 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Archuleta County's 864,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 170 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Archuleta Countyread your own land →