Fruita, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fruita, 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 Fruita 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 Fruita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fruita — the short answer
Fruita, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Fruita's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fruita's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fruita
Each reading below is measured for Fruita itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFruita runs about 184 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
MeasuredFruita 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 Fruita is in
Fruita sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fruita's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mesa County.
What Grows in Fruita
Every plant below cleared Fruita's own zone 6b and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fruita?
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 Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Fruita
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fruita. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- L.C. VOUGHT COBrownfields · 450 ft
- Farmland Industries IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SCREW MACHINE SPECIALTIESBrownfields · 700 ft
- Colorado National MonumentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Air Photo SurveysUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MobilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CITY MARKET 413Brownfields · 1700 ft
- C R Brown Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Go-Fer Foods Of Fruita #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Amelda TompkinsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Circle K #688Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mesa Ct Fruita ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fruita'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 Fruita.
Total Sites
293
within ~10 miles of Fruita
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fruita
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fruita
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fruita, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Fruita. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fruita
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 Fruita average
Your land is one point inside Fruita
Everything above resolves to Fruita as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 city 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 Fruita Average
Fruita Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Fruita
- ●One soil character for all of Fruita
- ●Frost dates read at Fruita's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fruita's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fruita
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fruita, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fruita averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fruita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fruita average
How we know this about Fruita
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Fruita’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Fruita
When does frost risk typically end in Fruita?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fruita typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Fruita?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fruita typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fruita?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fruita sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 5, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fruita?
The federal record around Fruita is a meaningful one — 293 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fruita?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fruita's scale — its 6b band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fruita'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 Fruita’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fruita's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,126 acres it covers and 293 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fruita's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fruita's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 19 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 293 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fruita, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fruita's boundary and the 5,126 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fruita's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fruita's 5,126 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mesa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mesa 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 Mesa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fruita's 5,126 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fruita you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,126 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Fruita-wide figureread your own land →
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