Cubero, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cubero, 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 Cubero 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 Cubero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cubero — the short answer
Cubero, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Cubero's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cubero's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Cubero's own 30-year record measures about 183 days between 28°F killing freezes — 33 days longer than Cibola County's ~150. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Cubero's ~183-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cubero
Each reading below is measured for Cubero itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCubero runs about 183 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
MeasuredCubero 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 Cubero is in
Cubero sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cubero's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in Cubero
Every plant below cleared Cubero's own zone 6b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cubero?
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 Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Cubero
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cubero. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N.07W.24.224Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 10N.07W.24.222Nitrate · 1900 ft
- 10N.07W.23.243Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 10N.07W.25.200Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- CHAVEZ WRECKER AND RECOVERYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- 10N.07W.25.300Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 10N.07W.27.200Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 10N.07W.27.300 DUPNitrate · 2.4 mi
- 10N.07W.35.210Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 10N.07W.27.000Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 10N.07W.36.200Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 10N.06W.31.443ANitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cubero'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 Cubero.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Cubero
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cubero
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cubero
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cubero, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cubero — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (76 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cubero
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 Cubero average
Your land is one point inside Cubero
Everything above resolves to Cubero as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Cubero Average
Cubero Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Cubero
- ●One soil character for all of Cubero
- ●Frost dates read at Cubero's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cubero's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cubero
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cubero, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cubero averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cubero — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cubero average
How we know this about Cubero
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 Cubero’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 Cubero
When does frost risk typically end in Cubero?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cubero typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Cubero?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cubero typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cubero?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cubero sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 9, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cubero?
The federal record around Cubero is a meaningful one — 91 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cubero?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cubero's scale — its 6b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cubero'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 Cubero’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cubero's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,124 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cubero's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cubero's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 23 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cubero, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cubero's boundary and the 6,124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cubero'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 Cubero's 6,124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cubero's 6,124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cubero you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,124 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Cubero-wide figureread your own land →