Hidalgo County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, 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
Hidalgo County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hidalgo County — the short answer
Hidalgo County, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 2.2M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.2M 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 8a is Hidalgo County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hidalgo County's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hidalgo County
Across a year, Hidalgo County accumulates about 4,483 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,310 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 26 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 1,810 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 Hidalgo County
Across Hidalgo County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Lehmans, Nickel, and Mohave are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a stony loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hidalgo County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Hidalgo County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 3% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat excessively drained.
Lehmans is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Nickel (9%) and Mohave (9%).
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 Hidalgo County
Each reading below is measured for Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Hidalgo County runs about pH 7.5–8.2, 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
MeasuredHidalgo County runs about 237 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
MeasuredHidalgo County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Hidalgo County is in
Hidalgo County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Chihuahuan Deserts (51%) and Madrean Archipelago (48%). 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 Hidalgo County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hidalgo County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 237-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 Hidalgo County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Hidalgo County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hidalgo County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 498 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly5 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hidalgo County
USGS estimates 14,742 lb of Glyphosate on Hidalgo County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (4,778 lb) and 2,4-d (3,411 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 Hidalgo County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hidalgo County — 326 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Hidalgo County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Hidalgo County
Closest first, across Hidalgo County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NMDOT ANIMAS PATROL YARD 41 48Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- SAVEWAY GROCERY AND BAR KYLE AND LINDA REIDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- RinconMining · 4.5 mi
- COLUMBUS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 27S.19W.17.433Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 27S.19W.19.433Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 27S.20W.13.300Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- 27S.20W.12.444ANitrate · 6.8 mi
- B AND D AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 27S.20W.21.222Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 27S.17W.07.422Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- 29S.17W.07.313ANitrate · 10.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County.
Total Sites
326
across Hidalgo County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Hidalgo County
Severity Distribution
across Hidalgo County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hidalgo County, two things run higher than the national average across Hidalgo County — Mining (152 sites) and Nitrate (116 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 Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County average
Your land is one point inside Hidalgo County
Everything above resolves to Hidalgo County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.2M 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 Hidalgo County Average
Hidalgo County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hidalgo County
- ●One soil character for all of Hidalgo County
- ●Frost dates read at Hidalgo County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hidalgo County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hidalgo County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hidalgo County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hidalgo County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hidalgo County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hidalgo County average
How we know this about Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hidalgo County
When does frost risk typically end in Hidalgo County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hidalgo County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Hidalgo County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hidalgo County sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 30, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hidalgo County?
The federal record around Hidalgo County runs heavier than most — 326 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (152), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Hidalgo County's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hidalgo County's own scale — its own ~237-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 326 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hidalgo County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hidalgo County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hidalgo CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 326 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 4.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hidalgo County's boundary and the 2,200,670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hidalgo County spans, Chihuahuan Deserts the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hidalgo County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hidalgo 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 Hidalgo County — the ~237 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 Hidalgo County's 2,200,670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 326 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 Hidalgo Countyread your own land →