Cochiti Lake, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cochiti Lake, 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 Cochiti Lake 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 Cochiti Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cochiti Lake — the short answer
Cochiti Lake, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 796 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 796 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 Cochiti Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cochiti Lake's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cochiti Lake
Each reading below is measured for Cochiti Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCochiti Lake runs about 207 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
MeasuredCochiti Lake 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 Cochiti Lake is in
Cochiti Lake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cochiti Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sandoval County.
What Grows in Cochiti Lake
Every plant below cleared Cochiti Lake's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cochiti Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Cochiti Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cochiti Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 432 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cochiti Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cochiti Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SESESE S05 T16N R06E PAS-38Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- COCHITI DAMBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- 16N.06E.18.300Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- ROMEROS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 7-2-11 NO27723Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- BACAS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- BUDAGHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- COCHITI LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MONTOYA CLEO SUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- MRGCDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- 16N.06E.32.224Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- JIMMYS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cochiti Lake'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 Cochiti Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cochiti Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cochiti Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cochiti Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cochiti Lake — Mining (4 sites) and Nitrate (12 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 Cochiti Lake
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 Cochiti Lake average
Your land is one point inside Cochiti Lake
Everything above resolves to Cochiti Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 796 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 Cochiti Lake Average
Cochiti Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cochiti Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Cochiti Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Cochiti Lake's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cochiti Lake's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cochiti Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cochiti Lake, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cochiti Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cochiti Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cochiti Lake average
How we know this about Cochiti Lake
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 Cochiti Lake’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 Cochiti Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Cochiti Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cochiti Lake typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Cochiti Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cochiti Lake typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cochiti Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cochiti Lake sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 19, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cochiti Lake?
The federal record around Cochiti Lake shows 29 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Cochiti Lake?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cochiti Lake's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cochiti Lake'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 Cochiti Lake’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cochiti Lake's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 796 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cochiti Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cochiti Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 2 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cochiti Lake, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cochiti Lake's boundary and the 796 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cochiti Lake's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cochiti Lake 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 Cochiti Lake's 796 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sandoval County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sandoval 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 Sandoval County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cochiti Lake's 796 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cochiti Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 796 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Cochiti Lake-wide figureread your own land →