Hooper, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Hooper, 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 Hooper 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 Hooper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hooper — the short answer
Hooper, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 161 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 161 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 5a is Hooper's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hooper's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hooper
Each reading below is measured for Hooper itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHooper runs about 136 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHooper sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Hooper is in
Hooper sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Hooper's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alamosa County.
What Grows in Hooper
Every plant below cleared Hooper's own zone 5a and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hooper?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Hooper
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hooper. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sangre De Cristo Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- The Moffat CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Hooper JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NA04101027AAANitrate · 2.5 mi
- NA04001017DDA2Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- NA04100936DDD RG28Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- NA04001022BBBNitrate · 2.9 mi
- NA04101036DDDNitrate · 3.2 mi
- NA04001106BBB RG27Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- NA04101020AAA2Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- NA04101013ABD1 EW-79CNitrate · 5.0 mi
- NA04101013ABD (SLV)Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hooper'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 Hooper.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hooper
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hooper
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hooper, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 112 sites within ~10 miles of Hooper. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hooper
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 Hooper average
Your land is one point inside Hooper
Everything above resolves to Hooper as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 161 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 Hooper Average
Hooper Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hooper
- ●One soil character for all of Hooper
- ●Frost dates read at Hooper's scale: May 17 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hooper's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hooper
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hooper, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hooper averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hooper — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hooper average
How we know this about Hooper
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 Hooper’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 Hooper
When does frost risk typically end in Hooper?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hooper typically lands around May 17, 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 Jun 7.
When is the first frost in Hooper?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hooper typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hooper?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hooper sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 16, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hooper?
The federal record around Hooper shows 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 gardeners stretch the season in Hooper?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Hooper rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Hooper's scale — its 5a band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hooper'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 Hooper’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hooper's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 161 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hooper's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hooper's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Sep 30 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hooper, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hooper's boundary and the 161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hooper's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hooper's 161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alamosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alamosa 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 Alamosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hooper's 161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hooper you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 161 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 Hooper-wide figureread your own land →
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