Chaves County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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.
Chaves County lies within the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Chaves County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Chaves County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Chaves County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chaves County — the short answer
Chaves County, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 3.9M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 3.9M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Chaves County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chaves County's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Chaves County
Across a year, Chaves County accumulates about 4,811 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,638 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 28 of New Mexico’s 33 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,878 hours below 45°F. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Chaves County
Across Chaves County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Ector, Reakor, and Faskin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Chaves County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Chaves County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Ector is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Reakor (8%) and Faskin (7%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Chaves County
Each reading below is measured for Chaves County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Chaves County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Chaves County runs about pH 7.9–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredChaves County runs about 233 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
MeasuredChaves County 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 Chaves County is in
Chaves County spans 4 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southwestern Tablelands (40%), Chihuahuan Deserts (35%), High Plains (17%) and Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (8%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Chaves County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Chaves County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 233-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile.
Is it too late to plant in Chaves County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Chaves County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Chaves County
USGS estimates 39,181 lb of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s on Chaves County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (37,617 lb) and Metolachlor-s (37,266 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Chaves County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Chaves County — 628 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Chaves County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Chaves County
Closest first, across Chaves County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11S.24E.12.21333Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11S.24E.10.22434Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SCHRIMSHER BROTHERS FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FORCE ACCOUNT MAINTENANCE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- ALDERMAN-CAVE MILLING & GRAIN CO OF NEW MEXICOToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- LAND O'LAKES FARMLAND FEEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- CHAVES COUNTY ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- FINLEY BILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 11S.24E.01.11113Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- LEPRINO FOODS COToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- 10S.24E.35.443Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- CANYON CREST DAIRY (WOODCREST DAIRY)CAFO · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chaves County'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 Chaves County.
Sources Checked
across Chaves County
Severity Distribution
across Chaves County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chaves County, two things run higher than the national average across Chaves County — Nitrate (280 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Chaves County
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 Chaves County average
Your land is one point inside Chaves County
Everything above resolves to Chaves County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 3.9M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Chaves County Average
Chaves County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Chaves County
- ●One soil character for all of Chaves County
- ●Frost dates read at Chaves County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chaves County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Chaves County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chaves County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chaves County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chaves County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chaves County average
How we know this about Chaves County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Chaves County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Chaves County
When does frost risk typically end in Chaves County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chaves County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Chaves County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chaves County sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chaves County?
The federal record around Chaves County is a meaningful one — 628 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (280), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Chaves County's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chaves County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New Mexico's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Chaves County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Chaves County's own scale — its own ~233-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 628 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chaves County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chaves County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Chaves CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 628 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Chaves County's boundary and the 3,882,990 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 4 ecoregions Chaves County spans, Southwestern Tablelands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Chaves County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Chaves County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Chaves County — the ~233 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chaves County's 3,882,990 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 628 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Chaves Countyread your own land →