Guadalupe County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Guadalupe County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Guadalupe County — the short answer
Guadalupe County, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 1.9M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.9M 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 7a is Guadalupe County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guadalupe County's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Guadalupe County
Across a year, Guadalupe County accumulates about 3,668 growing degree days above 50°F, about 495 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 17 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 2,415 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 Guadalupe County
Across Guadalupe County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Pastura, Clovis, and Lacoca are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6–8.2, slightly 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 Guadalupe County
Pastura is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Clovis (13%) and Lacoca (8%).
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 Guadalupe County
Each reading below is measured for Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County runs about pH 7.6–8.2, 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
MeasuredGuadalupe County runs about 215 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
MeasuredGuadalupe County 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 Guadalupe County is in
Guadalupe County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Guadalupe County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Guadalupe County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 215-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 Guadalupe County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Guadalupe County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Guadalupe County
USGS estimates 10,638 lb of 2,4-d on Guadalupe County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (5,302 lb) and Glyphosate (848 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 Guadalupe County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Guadalupe County — 98 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Guadalupe County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Guadalupe County
Closest first, across Guadalupe County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stauber MineMining · 4.4 mi
- Pastura MineMining · 4.7 mi
- FRONTIER FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- MOON RANCH NM RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- COLONIASUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- RIO PECOS CONOCO AUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- Pintada MineMining · 6.9 mi
- SANTA ROSA WEST SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- MACS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- HOUSE OF MOVIES 1 GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- ORTEGA CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- NMDOT SANTA ROSA PATROL YARD 44 41Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County.
Severity Distribution
across Guadalupe County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guadalupe County, two things run higher than the national average across Guadalupe County — Underground Storage Tanks (87 sites) and Mining (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County average
Your land is one point inside Guadalupe County
Everything above resolves to Guadalupe County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.9M 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 Guadalupe County Average
Guadalupe County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Guadalupe County
- ●One soil character for all of Guadalupe County
- ●Frost dates read at Guadalupe County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guadalupe County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Guadalupe County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guadalupe County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guadalupe County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guadalupe County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guadalupe County average
How we know this about Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Guadalupe County
When does frost risk typically end in Guadalupe County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guadalupe County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 23.
How long is the growing season in Guadalupe County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guadalupe County sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 20, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guadalupe County?
The federal record around Guadalupe County shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (87), the nearest Mining record about 4.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Guadalupe County's scale — its 7a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Guadalupe County's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 98 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guadalupe County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guadalupe County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Guadalupe CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 98 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 4.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Guadalupe County's boundary and the 1,939,052 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Guadalupe County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Guadalupe County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County — the ~215 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 Guadalupe County's 1,939,052 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 98 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 Guadalupe Countyread your own land →