Otero County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Otero County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Otero 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 Otero County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Otero County — the short answer
Otero County, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 4.2M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 4.2M 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 Otero County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Otero County's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
One county, several growing seasons
Otero County's hard-freeze record runs about 215 days between freezes — but that is the county-wide average, and several towns inside it carry a markedly different season in their own 30-year record: Sacramento at about 181 days and Twin Forks at 181 (against the county's ~215).
Those are measured records, not estimates. If you garden in one of these pockets, plant against your own town's season rather than the county's ~215-day average.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Only held-out towns carrying their own record are named — a town with no record of its own is absent rather than estimated, and a county with nothing qualifying shows no spread at all.
Heat in Otero County
Across a year, Otero County accumulates about 2,899 growing degree days above 50°F, about 274 fewer than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 14 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Otero County
Across Otero County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Lozier, Deama, and Copia are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt 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 Otero County
The USDA soil survey maps 83% of Otero County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 9% excessively drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Lozier is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Deama (6%) and Copia (5%).
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 Otero County
Each reading below is measured for Otero 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 Otero 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 Otero 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
MeasuredOtero 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
MeasuredOtero 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 Otero County is in
Otero County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Chihuahuan Deserts (64%) and Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (36%). 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 Otero County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Otero County's own USDA zone 8a 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 Otero County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
Documented around Otero County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Otero County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 628 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly19 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Otero County
USGS estimates 5,552 lb of 2,4-d on Otero County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (3,524 lb) and Glyphosate (3,500 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 Otero County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Otero County — 642 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Otero 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 Otero County
Closest first, across Otero County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19S.12E.23.431Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 19S.12E.22.211Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- TLC HOMES AND AUTOBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- 18S.10E.32.143Nitrate · 10.9 mi
- DollinsMining · 11.8 mi
- 18S.10E.28.141Nitrate · 12.3 mi
- AURA INC NSO-SPBrownfields · 12.6 mi
- AURA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 12.8 mi
- Daugherty ProspectMining · 13.4 mi
- 18S.10E.09.332ANitrate · 13.9 mi
- 18S.10E.09.332Nitrate · 14.0 mi
- 18S.09E.36.2222Nitrate · 14.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Otero 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 Otero County.
Severity Distribution
across Otero County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Otero County, two things run higher than the national average across Otero County — Nitrate (376 sites) and Mining (36 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Otero 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 Otero County average
Your land is one point inside Otero County
Everything above resolves to Otero County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 4.2M 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 Otero County Average
Otero County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Otero County
- ●One soil character for all of Otero County
- ●Frost dates read at Otero County's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Otero County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Otero County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Otero County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Otero County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Otero County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Otero County average
How we know this about Otero 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 Otero County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Otero County
When does frost risk typically end in Otero County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Otero County typically lands around Apr 8, 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 29.
How long is the growing season in Otero County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Otero County sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 26, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Otero County?
The federal record around Otero County runs heavier than most — 642 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (376), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.6 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 Otero County's scale — its 8a band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Otero 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 Otero County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Otero County's own scale — its own ~215-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 642 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Otero County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Otero 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 Otero CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 642 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 3.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Otero County's boundary and the 4,232,036 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Otero County spans, Chihuahuan Deserts the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Otero County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Otero 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 Otero 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 Otero County's 4,232,036 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 642 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 Otero Countyread your own land →