Cedar Crest, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Cedar Crest, 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 Cedar Crest 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 Cedar Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cedar Crest — the short answer
Cedar Crest, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Cedar Crest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Crest's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Crest
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Crest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedar Crest runs about 187 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
MeasuredCedar Crest 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 Cedar Crest is in
Cedar Crest sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Cedar Crest's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bernalillo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cedar Crest
Every plant below cleared Cedar Crest's own zone 7a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Crest?
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 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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.
Documented around Cedar Crest
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cedar Crest checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 461 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Crest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Crest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N.05E.02.433Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 10N.05E.11.211Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 10N.05E.02.414 TEXACO STATIONNitrate · 0.6 mi
- CEDAR CREST MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 10N.05E.02.233ANitrate · 0.7 mi
- RICE HARWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 10N.05E.02.231ANitrate · 0.7 mi
- 10N.05E.02.123CNitrate · 0.7 mi
- 10N.05E.11.324Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CEDAR CRESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 10N.05E.02.122BNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 10N.05E.11.341 EAST MTN. REALTYNitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Crest'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 Cedar Crest.
Total Sites
904
within ~10 miles of Cedar Crest
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Crest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Crest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar Crest, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 514 sites within ~10 miles of Cedar Crest. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Crest
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 Cedar Crest average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Crest
Everything above resolves to Cedar Crest as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Cedar Crest Average
Cedar Crest Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cedar Crest
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Crest
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Crest's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Crest's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Crest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Crest, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Crest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Crest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Crest average
How we know this about Cedar Crest
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 Cedar Crest’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 Cedar Crest
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Crest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Crest typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cedar Crest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Crest typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Crest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Crest sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 12, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Crest?
The federal record around Cedar Crest is a meaningful one — 904 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (514), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Cedar Crest?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Crest's scale — its 7a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Crest'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 Cedar Crest’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Crest's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,000 acres it covers and 904 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Crest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedar Crest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 26 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 904 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Crest, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Crest's boundary and the 2,000 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cedar Crest sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cedar Crest 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 Cedar Crest's 2,000 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bernalillo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bernalillo 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 Bernalillo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Crest's 2,000 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Crest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,000 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Cedar Crest-wide figureread your own land →