Conchas Dam, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Conchas Dam, 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 Conchas Dam 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 Conchas Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conchas Dam — the short answer
Conchas Dam, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 229 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~229
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Conchas Dam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conchas Dam's 229-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conchas Dam
Each reading below is measured for Conchas Dam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConchas Dam runs about 229 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
MeasuredConchas Dam sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Conchas Dam is in
Conchas Dam sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Conchas Dam's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Miguel County.
What Grows in Conchas Dam
Every plant below cleared Conchas Dam's own zone 7b and its 229-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Conchas Dam?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Conchas Dam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conchas Dam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAMES MCELROY RESIDENCEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CONCHAS LAKE PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CONCHAS LAKE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CONCHAS NORTH DOCK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
Measured from Conchas Dam'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 Conchas Dam.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conchas Dam
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Conchas Dam
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 Conchas Dam average
Your land is one point inside Conchas Dam
Everything above resolves to Conchas Dam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Conchas Dam Average
Conchas Dam Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Conchas Dam
- ●One soil character for all of Conchas Dam
- ●Frost dates read at Conchas Dam's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conchas Dam's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conchas Dam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conchas Dam, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conchas Dam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conchas Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conchas Dam average
How we know this about Conchas Dam
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 Conchas Dam’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 Conchas Dam
When does frost risk typically end in Conchas Dam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conchas Dam typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Conchas Dam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conchas Dam typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 229 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Conchas Dam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conchas Dam sees about 229 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 27, about 194 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Conchas Dam?
The federal record around Conchas Dam is light — 4 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3), the nearest Brownfields 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 Conchas Dam?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Conchas Dam's scale — its 7b band and its 229-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conchas Dam'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 Conchas Dam’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conchas Dam's own scale — its own ~229-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,328 acres it covers and 4 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conchas Dam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conchas Dam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 10 and the ~229-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 4 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conchas Dam, the closest Brownfields record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conchas Dam's boundary and the 5,328 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~229-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Conchas Dam's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Conchas Dam's 5,328 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Miguel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Miguel 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 San Miguel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conchas Dam's 5,328 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conchas Dam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,328 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Conchas Dam-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoConchas Dam sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides