Valencia County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Valencia County lies within the Middle Rio Grande / Albuquerque — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Valencia County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Valencia 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 Valencia County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valencia County — the short answer
Valencia County, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 683K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 683K 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 Valencia County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valencia County's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Valencia County
Across a year, Valencia County accumulates about 3,864 growing degree days above 50°F, about 691 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 21 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 Valencia County
Across Valencia County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Madurez, Bluepoint, and Wink are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Valencia County
The USDA soil survey maps 81% of Valencia County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 11% somewhat excessively drained.
Madurez is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Bluepoint (14%) and Wink (12%).
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 Valencia County
Each reading below is measured for Valencia 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 Valencia County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Valencia 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
MeasuredValencia County runs about 200 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
MeasuredValencia 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 Valencia County is in
Valencia County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Arizona/New Mexico Plateau (94%) and Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (6%). 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 Valencia County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Valencia County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 200-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 Valencia County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Valencia County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Valencia County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 471 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Valencia County
USGS estimates 5,110 lb of Glyphosate on Valencia County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (2,712 lb) and Atrazine (1,074 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 Valencia County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Valencia County — 307 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 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 Valencia 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 Valencia County
Closest first, across Valencia County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAVCO INDS L L C NEW MEXICOToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- CEMCO, INC.Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #1414Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- FOX LP GAS CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- TESORO WEST COAST CO MIRASTAR 64029Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- NEW MEXICO TRACTOR SALESBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- CATTLEMENS LIVESTOCK AUCTIONCAFO · 2.7 mi
- MONTOYA'S SMALL ENGINE & SEWING MACHINE REPAIRBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- BELEN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS - SUPPORT SERVICESBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- ALLSUPS - NO137Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- RIO VALLEY RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 06N.02E.18.232Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valencia 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 Valencia County.
Severity Distribution
across Valencia County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valencia County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 116 sites across Valencia County. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Valencia 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 Valencia County average
Your land is one point inside Valencia County
Everything above resolves to Valencia County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 683K 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 Valencia County Average
Valencia County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Valencia County
- ●One soil character for all of Valencia County
- ●Frost dates read at Valencia County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valencia County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Valencia County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valencia County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valencia County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valencia County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valencia County average
How we know this about Valencia 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 Valencia County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Valencia County
When does frost risk typically end in Valencia County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valencia County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 May 1.
How long is the growing season in Valencia County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valencia County sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 13, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valencia County?
The federal record around Valencia County is a meaningful one — 307 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (116), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Valencia County's scale — its 7b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valencia 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 Valencia County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Valencia County's own scale — its own ~200-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 307 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valencia County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valencia County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Valencia CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 307 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Valencia County's boundary and the 682,698 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Valencia County spans, Arizona/New Mexico Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Valencia County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Valencia 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 Valencia County — the ~200 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 Valencia County's 682,698 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 307 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 Valencia Countyread your own land →