San Acacio, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 San Acacio, 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 San Acacio 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 San Acacio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Acacio — the short answer
San Acacio, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 134 days between hard freezes, across 804 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~134
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 804 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 San Acacio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Acacio's 134-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Acacio
Each reading below is measured for San Acacio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSan Acacio runs about 134 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
MeasuredSan Acacio 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 San Acacio is in
San Acacio sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at San Acacio's own centroid rather than borrowed from Costilla County.
What Grows in San Acacio
Every plant below cleared San Acacio's own zone 5a and its 134-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Acacio?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near San Acacio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Acacio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLORADO AGGREGATEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- COLORADO AGGREGATEToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- CB00307323CDB DUP1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- CC03207304CADNitrate · 5.8 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8102Brownfields · 6.0 mi
- Gus ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- Speedway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- San Luis Custom CyclesUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- San Luis TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Central OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Centennial School District R1Underground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Zegob StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Acacio'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 San Acacio.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of San Acacio
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Acacio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Acacio
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in San Acacio
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 San Acacio average
Your land is one point inside San Acacio
Everything above resolves to San Acacio as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 804 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 San Acacio Average
San Acacio Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across San Acacio
- ●One soil character for all of San Acacio
- ●Frost dates read at San Acacio's scale: May 17 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Acacio's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Acacio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Acacio, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Acacio averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Acacio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Acacio average
How we know this about San Acacio
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 San Acacio’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 San Acacio
When does frost risk typically end in San Acacio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Acacio 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 San Acacio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Acacio typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 134 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Acacio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Acacio sees about 134 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 14, about 99 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Acacio?
The federal record around San Acacio is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (10), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in San Acacio?
With about 134 frost-free days between hard freezes, San Acacio 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 162 to 190 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 San Acacio's scale — its 5a band and its 134-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Acacio'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 San Acacio’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at San Acacio's own scale — its own ~134-day season between 28°F freezes, the 804 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Acacio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- San Acacio's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Sep 28 and the ~134-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Acacio, the closest Brownfields record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Acacio's boundary and the 804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~134-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Acacio'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 San Acacio's 804 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Costilla County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Costilla 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 Costilla County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Acacio's 804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Acacio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.7 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 San Acacio-wide figureread your own land →
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