Crownpoint, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crownpoint, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Crownpoint lot. 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 Crownpoint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crownpoint — the short answer
Crownpoint, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 43K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 43K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 6b is Crownpoint's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crownpoint's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crownpoint
Each reading below is measured for Crownpoint itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCrownpoint runs about 179 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCrownpoint sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Crownpoint is in
Crownpoint sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Crownpoint's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Crownpoint
Every plant below cleared Crownpoint's own zone 6b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crownpoint?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Crownpoint
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crownpoint. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIA CROWNPOINT COMM SCH ENABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- 17N.13W.11.33Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- CROWNPOINT FLEET MANAGEMENTBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- NTUA CROWNPOINT SUBOFFICEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CORN CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- ENA BRANCH OF ROADSBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 17N.13W.10.42Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- CROWNPOINT SERVICE UNITBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- 17N.13W.10.44Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 17N.12W.03.2212Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- BIA TSE II AHI SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- NOSE ROCK MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crownpoint'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 Crownpoint.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crownpoint
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crownpoint
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crownpoint, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Crownpoint. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Crownpoint
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 Crownpoint average
Your land is one point inside Crownpoint
Everything above resolves to Crownpoint as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 43K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Crownpoint Average
Crownpoint Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Crownpoint
- ●One soil character for all of Crownpoint
- ●Frost dates read at Crownpoint's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crownpoint's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crownpoint
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crownpoint, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crownpoint averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crownpoint — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crownpoint average
How we know this about Crownpoint
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Crownpoint’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Crownpoint
When does frost risk typically end in Crownpoint?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crownpoint typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Crownpoint?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crownpoint typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crownpoint?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crownpoint sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 7, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crownpoint?
The federal record around Crownpoint shows 64 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Crownpoint?
From about Sep 21 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crownpoint's scale — its 6b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crownpoint's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Crownpoint’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Crownpoint's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 42,918 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crownpoint's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Crownpoint's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 21 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crownpoint, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crownpoint's boundary and the 42,918 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crownpoint's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crownpoint's 42,918 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKinley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKinley County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom McKinley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crownpoint's 42,918 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crownpoint you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 42,918 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Crownpoint-wide figureread your own land →