Luna County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, 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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Luna County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Luna 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 Luna County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Luna County — the short answer
Luna County, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1.9M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 8a is Luna County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luna County's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Luna County
Across a year, Luna County accumulates about 4,824 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,651 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 30 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 1,793 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 Luna County
Across Luna County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Mohave, Hondale, and Stellar are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silty clay 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 Luna County
The USDA soil survey maps 92% of Luna County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 6% somewhat excessively drained, 1% excessively drained.
Mohave is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Hondale (12%) and Stellar (10%).
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 Luna County
Each reading below is measured for Luna 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 Luna 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 Luna 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
MeasuredLuna County runs about 238 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
MeasuredLuna 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 Luna County is in
Luna County sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Luna County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Luna County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 238-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 Luna County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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. 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Luna County
USGS estimates 14,030 lb of Glyphosate on Luna County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (3,525 lb) and Methomyl (3,041 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 Luna County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Luna County — 395 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Luna 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 Luna County
Closest first, across Luna County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEMING MUNICIPAL WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.4 mi
- A AND A SALVAGE RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 24S.09W.15.433Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 24S.09W.13.111Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CORNER STORE NO 1286Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 24S.08W.20.300Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 24S.08W.20.411Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- 25S.08W.18.111ANitrate · 3.7 mi
- 25S.08W.18.111 DUPNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 24S.09W.12.100Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- LUNA COUNTY RD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- US AIR FORCE AEROSTAT SITE (TARS)Brownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luna 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 Luna County.
Severity Distribution
across Luna County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luna County, two things run higher than the national average across Luna County — Mining (100 sites) and Nitrate (160 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 Luna 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 Luna County average
Your land is one point inside Luna County
Everything above resolves to Luna 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 Luna County Average
Luna County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Luna County
- ●One soil character for all of Luna County
- ●Frost dates read at Luna County's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luna County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Luna County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luna County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luna County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luna County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luna County average
How we know this about Luna 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 Luna County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Luna County
When does frost risk typically end in Luna County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luna County typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Luna County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luna County sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 28, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luna County?
The federal record around Luna County runs heavier than most — 395 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (160), the nearest PFAS record about 1.4 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 Luna County's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luna 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 Luna County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Luna County's own scale — its own ~238-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 395 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luna County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luna County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Luna CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 395 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Luna County's boundary and the 1,897,712 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Luna County sitting wholly inside the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Luna 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 Luna County — the ~238 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 Luna County's 1,897,712 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 395 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 Luna Countyread your own land →