Alamo, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alamo, 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 Alamo 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 Alamo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alamo — the short answer
Alamo, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 25K 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 7a is Alamo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alamo's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alamo
Each reading below is measured for Alamo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlamo runs about 177 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
MeasuredAlamo sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Alamo is in
Alamo sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Alamo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Socorro County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Alamo
Every plant below cleared Alamo's own zone 7a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alamo?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Alamo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alamo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rule ProspectMining · 1.6 mi
- 03N.06W.28.Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 04N.06W.32.214 DUPNitrate · 3.6 mi
- ALAMO NAVAJO SCHOOL BOARD INCBrownfields · 9.3 mi
Measured from Alamo'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 Alamo.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Alamo
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alamo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Alamo
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 Alamo average
Your land is one point inside Alamo
Everything above resolves to Alamo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 25K 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 Alamo Average
Alamo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Alamo
- ●One soil character for all of Alamo
- ●Frost dates read at Alamo's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alamo's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alamo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alamo, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alamo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alamo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alamo average
How we know this about Alamo
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 Alamo’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 Alamo
When does frost risk typically end in Alamo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Alamo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alamo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alamo sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 5, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alamo?
The federal record around Alamo is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Mining record about 1.6 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 I protect my plants from frost in Alamo?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alamo's scale — its 7a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alamo'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 Alamo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Alamo's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 25,071 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alamo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alamo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 19 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alamo, the closest Mining record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alamo's boundary and the 25,071 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Alamo sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alamo's 25,071 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Socorro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Socorro County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Socorro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alamo's 25,071 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alamo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 25,071 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.6 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 Alamo-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Growing region
Nearby growing guides