Weldona, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Weldona, 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 Weldona 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 Weldona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Weldona — the short answer
Weldona, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 100 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 100 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 Weldona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weldona's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weldona
Each reading below is measured for Weldona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWeldona runs about 172 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
MeasuredWeldona 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 Weldona is in
Weldona sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Weldona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Weldona
Every plant below cleared Weldona's own zone 5a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weldona?
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 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Weldona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weldona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Weldon Valley SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- WELDONA VALLEY SCHOOLBrownfields · 700 ft
- DenosUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SB00405902CBC NAWQA 9Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CHAPIN DAIRYCAFO · 1.5 mi
- PORE WATER AT 06758500Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- SB00505930CBA NAWQA 13Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- SB00406024DCC1Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- SB00406024CCC1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- PSA - 8Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- PSA - 3Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- PSA - 4Nitrate · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weldona'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 Weldona.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of Weldona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weldona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weldona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weldona, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Weldona — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Weldona
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 Weldona average
Your land is one point inside Weldona
Everything above resolves to Weldona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 100 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 Weldona Average
Weldona Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Weldona
- ●One soil character for all of Weldona
- ●Frost dates read at Weldona's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weldona's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weldona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weldona, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weldona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weldona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weldona average
How we know this about Weldona
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 Weldona’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 Weldona
When does frost risk typically end in Weldona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weldona 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 Weldona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weldona typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weldona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weldona sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 29, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weldona?
The federal record around Weldona shows 83 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Weldona?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Weldona's scale — its 5a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weldona'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 Weldona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Weldona's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 100 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weldona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weldona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 13 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weldona, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weldona's boundary and the 100 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weldona's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Weldona's 100 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 Weldona's 100 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weldona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 100 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Weldona-wide figureread your own land →
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