Trinidad, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Trinidad, 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 Trinidad 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 Trinidad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Trinidad — the short answer
Trinidad, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 6a is Trinidad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Trinidad's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Trinidad
Each reading below is measured for Trinidad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTrinidad 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
MeasuredTrinidad sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Trinidad is in
Trinidad sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Trinidad's own centroid rather than borrowed from Las Animas County.
What Grows in Trinidad
Every plant below cleared Trinidad's own zone 6a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Trinidad?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Trinidad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Trinidad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRINIDAD INN NURSING HOMEBrownfields · 550 ft
- MOUNT SAN RAFAEL HOSPITALBrownfields · 550 ft
- Mount San Rafael HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Gasamat #179Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 222 Gray Creek RoadUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- East Main ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- J R's Fuel Stop #810Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Leones Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Burlington NorthernUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Petro Mark CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Pete ConnellUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Wozniak Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Trinidad'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 Trinidad.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Trinidad
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Trinidad
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Trinidad, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Trinidad. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Trinidad
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 Trinidad average
Your land is one point inside Trinidad
Everything above resolves to Trinidad as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Trinidad Average
Trinidad Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Trinidad
- ●One soil character for all of Trinidad
- ●Frost dates read at Trinidad's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Trinidad's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Trinidad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Trinidad, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Trinidad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Trinidad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Trinidad average
How we know this about Trinidad
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 Trinidad’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 Trinidad
When does frost risk typically end in Trinidad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Trinidad typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Trinidad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Trinidad typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Trinidad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Trinidad sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 30, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Trinidad?
The federal record around Trinidad shows 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Trinidad?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Trinidad's scale — its 6a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Trinidad'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 Trinidad’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Trinidad's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,006 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Trinidad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Trinidad's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 14 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Trinidad, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Trinidad's boundary and the 6,006 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Trinidad's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Trinidad's 6,006 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Las Animas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Las Animas 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 Las Animas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Trinidad's 6,006 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Trinidad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,006 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Trinidad-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoTrinidad sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.