Baca County, in Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Baca County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Baca County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Baca 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 Baca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baca County — the short answer
Baca County, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 1.6M acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.6M 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 6b is Baca County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baca County's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Baca County
Across a year, Baca County accumulates about 3,344 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,512 more than the middle Colorado county — ahead of 61 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 Baca County
Across Baca County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Baca, Wiley, and Campo are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Baca County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Baca County as well drained — but another 25% drains differently: 19% somewhat excessively drained, 6% excessively drained.
Baca is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Wiley (17%) and Campo (9%).
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 Baca County
Each reading below is measured for Baca 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 Baca 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 Baca County runs about pH 7.2–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBaca County runs about 190 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
MeasuredBaca County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Baca County is in
Baca County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (84%) and Southwestern Tablelands (16%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Baca County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Baca County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 190-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 Baca County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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.
Documented around Baca County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Baca County
USGS estimates 343,332 lb of Glyphosate on Baca County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (201,456 lb) and Atrazine (195,491 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 Baca County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Baca County — 142 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Baca County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Baca County
Closest first, across Baca County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC03104621CBDNitrate · 4.0 mi
- Springfield Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Walsh Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- SC03004629DDC2Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- SC03004632BABNitrate · 7.1 mi
- J/W PetroUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- Elkhart Coop Equity ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- SOUTHEAST COLORADO HOSPITAL DISTRICTBrownfields · 7.5 mi
- Atchison Topeka & Santa Fe RailUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- Loves Country Store #37Underground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- Loaf N Jug #5Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- SC03004630DADNitrate · 7.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baca 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 Baca County.
Total Sites
142
across Baca County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Baca County
Severity Distribution
across Baca County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baca County, two things run higher than the national average across Baca County — Mining (36 sites) and Nitrate (70 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Baca 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 Baca County average
Your land is one point inside Baca County
Everything above resolves to Baca County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.6M 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 Baca County Average
Baca County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Baca County
- ●One soil character for all of Baca County
- ●Frost dates read at Baca County's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baca County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Baca County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baca County, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baca County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baca County average
How we know this about Baca 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 Baca County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Baca County
When does frost risk typically end in Baca County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baca County typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
How long is the growing season in Baca County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baca County sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 9, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baca County?
The federal record around Baca County shows 142 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Nitrate record about 4.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Baca County's scale — its 6b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baca 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 Baca County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Baca County's own scale — its own ~190-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 142 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baca County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baca County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Baca CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 142 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 4.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Baca County's boundary and the 1,635,194 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Baca County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Baca County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Baca 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 Baca County — the ~190 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 Baca County's 1,635,194 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 142 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 Baca Countyread your own land →