Snyder, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — 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 Snyder, 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 Snyder 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 Snyder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Snyder — the short answer
Snyder, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 227 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 227 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 Snyder's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Snyder's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Snyder
Each reading below is measured for Snyder itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSnyder runs about 174 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
MeasuredSnyder 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 Snyder is in
Snyder sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Snyder's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Snyder
Every plant below cleared Snyder's own zone 5b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Snyder?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Snyder
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Snyder. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB00405612AAB USGS 402002103351401Nitrate · 1600 ft
- SB00505528CCC NAWQA 12Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- Hillrose Gas & BaitUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- PARACHUTE RANCH, INCCAFO · 4.3 mi
- Pepsi-cola BottlingUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- SB Travel StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- BRUSH SCHOOL DISTRICT RE 2Brownfields · 4.4 mi
- Mohrlang Manufacturing IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- PSCO - BRUSH SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- MOHRLANG MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- Minit Mart #648Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- FAA Brush RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Snyder'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 Snyder.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Snyder
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Snyder
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Snyder
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Snyder, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Snyder. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Snyder
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 Snyder average
Your land is one point inside Snyder
Everything above resolves to Snyder as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 227 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 Snyder Average
Snyder Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Snyder
- ●One soil character for all of Snyder
- ●Frost dates read at Snyder's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Snyder's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Snyder
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Snyder, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Snyder averages can't show:
We read public map data around Snyder — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Snyder average
How we know this about Snyder
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 Snyder’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 Snyder
When does frost risk typically end in Snyder?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Snyder typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Snyder?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Snyder typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Snyder?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Snyder sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 1, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Snyder?
The federal record around Snyder shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Snyder?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Snyder's scale — its 5b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Snyder'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 Snyder’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Snyder's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 227 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Snyder's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Snyder's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 15 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Snyder, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Snyder's boundary and the 227 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Snyder's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Snyder's 227 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Snyder's 227 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Snyder you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 227 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Snyder-wide figureread your own land →
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