Dotsero, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dotsero, 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 Dotsero 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 Dotsero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dotsero — the short answer
Dotsero, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 868 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 868 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 Dotsero's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dotsero's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dotsero
Each reading below is measured for Dotsero itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDotsero 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
MeasuredDotsero 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 Dotsero is in
Dotsero sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Dotsero's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in Dotsero
Every plant below cleared Dotsero'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 Dotsero?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Dotsero
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dotsero. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00508605AADNitrate · 1100 ft
- SC00508604ACCNitrate · 0.6 mi
- SC00508605BAA AREN2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Dotsero Block CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Richard D LongUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SC00508606CCCNitrate · 1.9 mi
- SC00508519BABNitrate · 5.0 mi
- Gerard BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- Hiway 6 StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- City Of GypsumUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- SC00508518DBANitrate · 5.2 mi
- EAGLE GYPSUM MINEToxics Release Inventory · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dotsero'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 Dotsero.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Dotsero
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dotsero
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dotsero
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dotsero, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Dotsero. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dotsero
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 Dotsero average
Your land is one point inside Dotsero
Everything above resolves to Dotsero as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 868 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 Dotsero Average
Dotsero Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Dotsero
- ●One soil character for all of Dotsero
- ●Frost dates read at Dotsero's scale: May 5 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dotsero's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dotsero
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dotsero, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dotsero averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dotsero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dotsero average
How we know this about Dotsero
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 Dotsero’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 Dotsero
When does frost risk typically end in Dotsero?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dotsero typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Dotsero?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dotsero typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dotsero?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dotsero sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 22, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dotsero?
The federal record around Dotsero shows 70 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dotsero?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dotsero's scale — its 5b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dotsero'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 Dotsero’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dotsero's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 868 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dotsero's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dotsero's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 6 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dotsero, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dotsero's boundary and the 868 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 Dotsero's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dotsero's 868 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eagle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eagle 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 Eagle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dotsero's 868 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dotsero you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 868 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Dotsero-wide figureread your own land →
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