Chamisal, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, 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 Chamisal, 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 Chamisal 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 Chamisal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chamisal — the short answer
Chamisal, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Chamisal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chamisal's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chamisal
Each reading below is measured for Chamisal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChamisal runs about 173 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
MeasuredChamisal sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Chamisal is in
Chamisal sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Chamisal's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Taos County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chamisal
Every plant below cleared Chamisal's own zone 6b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chamisal?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Chamisal
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chamisal checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 426 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chamisal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chamisal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 22N.11E.02.214Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Owens-Roybal GroupMining · 1.8 mi
- Owen-Roybal GroupMining · 1.9 mi
- CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- PENASCO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- RIO LUCIO GULF SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PENASCO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- VISARRAGA ALONZOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NMDOT PENASCO PATROL YARD 45 56Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PENASCO RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Harding Pegmatite Ext.Mining · 2.7 mi
- TRAVELERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chamisal'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 Chamisal.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chamisal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chamisal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chamisal, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chamisal — Mining (18 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Chamisal
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 Chamisal average
Your land is one point inside Chamisal
Everything above resolves to Chamisal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Chamisal Average
Chamisal Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Chamisal
- ●One soil character for all of Chamisal
- ●Frost dates read at Chamisal's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chamisal's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chamisal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chamisal, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chamisal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chamisal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chamisal average
How we know this about Chamisal
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 Chamisal’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 Chamisal
When does frost risk typically end in Chamisal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chamisal typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Chamisal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chamisal typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chamisal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chamisal sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 4, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chamisal?
The federal record around Chamisal shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Chamisal?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chamisal's scale — its 6b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chamisal'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 Chamisal’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chamisal's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,050 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chamisal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chamisal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 18 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chamisal, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chamisal's boundary and the 1,050 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chamisal sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chamisal 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 Chamisal's 1,050 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taos 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 Taos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chamisal's 1,050 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chamisal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,050 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Chamisal-wide figureread your own land →