Dolores, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, 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 Dolores, 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 Dolores 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 Dolores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dolores — the short answer
Dolores, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 477 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 477 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 6b is Dolores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dolores's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dolores
Each reading below is measured for Dolores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDolores runs about 165 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
MeasuredDolores 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 Dolores is in
Dolores sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Dolores's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Montezuma County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Dolores
Every plant below cleared Dolores's own zone 6b and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dolores?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Dolores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dolores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Osprey Back PacksUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Dolores Rearing UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Giant #7229Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Dolores SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Basecamp Food and FuelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 11th Street Auto CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Orphan Tank In RowUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Doc's OutfittersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Macaluso Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Dolores County Schools Re-2 (j)Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DOLORES SCHOOL DISTRICT ADDITIONS AND RENOVATIONSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Dolores School District Re-4aUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dolores'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 Dolores.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Dolores
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dolores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dolores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dolores, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 69 sites within ~10 miles of Dolores. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Dolores
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 Dolores average
Your land is one point inside Dolores
Everything above resolves to Dolores as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 477 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 Dolores Average
Dolores Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Dolores
- ●One soil character for all of Dolores
- ●Frost dates read at Dolores's scale: May 2 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dolores's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dolores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dolores, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dolores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dolores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dolores average
How we know this about Dolores
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 Dolores’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 Dolores
When does frost risk typically end in Dolores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dolores typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Dolores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dolores typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dolores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dolores sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 30, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dolores?
The federal record around Dolores is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dolores?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dolores's scale — its 6b band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dolores'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 Dolores’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dolores's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 477 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dolores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dolores's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 14 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dolores, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dolores's boundary and the 477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Dolores sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dolores's 477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montezuma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montezuma 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 Montezuma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dolores's 477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dolores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dolores-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region