Crestone, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Crestone, 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 Crestone 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 Crestone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crestone — the short answer
Crestone, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 246 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- 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
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 246 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 Crestone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crestone's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crestone
Each reading below is measured for Crestone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrestone runs about 154 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
MeasuredCrestone 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 Crestone is in
Crestone sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Crestone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Saguache County.
What Grows in Crestone
Every plant below cleared Crestone's own zone 5b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crestone?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (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 Crestone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crestone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Crestone DistrictMining · 900 ft
- Crestone General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Crestone Mineral Co. ClaimsMining · 0.6 mi
- UnknownMining · 0.6 mi
- Reed ClaimMining · 1.4 mi
- Pelican ClaimMining · 1.4 mi
- Dandy-Copper TunnelMining · 1.5 mi
- Concordia ClaimMining · 2.0 mi
- Baca Grande Property Owners AssnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Unnamed MineMining · 3.6 mi
- San Isabel Mining and Milling Co. ClaimsMining · 4.0 mi
- Independence MineMining · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crestone'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 Crestone.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crestone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crestone, Mining runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Crestone. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Crestone
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 Crestone average
Your land is one point inside Crestone
Everything above resolves to Crestone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 246 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 Crestone Average
Crestone Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Crestone
- ●One soil character for all of Crestone
- ●Frost dates read at Crestone's scale: May 6 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crestone's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crestone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crestone, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crestone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crestone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crestone average
How we know this about Crestone
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 Crestone’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 Crestone
When does frost risk typically end in Crestone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crestone typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Crestone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crestone 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 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crestone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crestone sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 23, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crestone?
The federal record around Crestone runs heavier than most — 25 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (23), the nearest Mining record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crestone?
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 Crestone's scale — its 5b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crestone'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 Crestone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crestone's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 246 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crestone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crestone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 7 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crestone, the closest Mining record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crestone's boundary and the 246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crestone's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crestone's 246 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saguache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saguache 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 Saguache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crestone's 246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crestone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 246 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Crestone-wide figureread your own land →
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