Alamogordo, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Alamogordo, 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 Alamogordo 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 Alamogordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alamogordo — the short answer
Alamogordo, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 8a is Alamogordo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alamogordo's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alamogordo
Each reading below is measured for Alamogordo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAlamogordo runs about 240 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAlamogordo sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Alamogordo is in
Alamogordo sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Alamogordo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otero County.
What Grows in Alamogordo
Every plant below cleared Alamogordo's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alamogordo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Alamogordo
Survey cells within 31 miles of Alamogordo checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 606 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Alamogordo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alamogordo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J AND J MINI MARKET 2Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- SOUTH TOWN CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HAAS MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ALAMO MOTORSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CORNER STORE NO 1296Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SOUTHSIDE TEXACO ALAMOGORDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- H AND G MINI MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OHARAS GASCARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- BENNETT WILLIAM AND ANGELINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RICHARDSON MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MACKS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BREMNER GEORGE HUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alamogordo'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 Alamogordo.
Total Sites
330
within ~10 miles of Alamogordo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alamogordo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alamogordo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alamogordo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alamogordo — Nitrate (156 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Alamogordo
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 Alamogordo average
Your land is one point inside Alamogordo
Everything above resolves to Alamogordo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Alamogordo Average
Alamogordo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Alamogordo
- ●One soil character for all of Alamogordo
- ●Frost dates read at Alamogordo's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alamogordo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alamogordo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alamogordo, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alamogordo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alamogordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alamogordo average
How we know this about Alamogordo
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 Alamogordo’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 Alamogordo
When does frost risk typically end in Alamogordo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alamogordo typically lands around Mar 18, 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 Apr 8.
When is the first frost in Alamogordo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alamogordo typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alamogordo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alamogordo sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alamogordo?
The federal record around Alamogordo is a meaningful one — 330 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Alamogordo?
From about Oct 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 Nov 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 Nov 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alamogordo's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alamogordo'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 Alamogordo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Alamogordo's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 13,806 acres it covers and 330 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alamogordo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Alamogordo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 330 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alamogordo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alamogordo's boundary and the 13,806 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alamogordo's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Alamogordo checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alamogordo's 13,806 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alamogordo's 13,806 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alamogordo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,806 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Alamogordo-wide figureread your own land →
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