Fort Wingate, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Wingate, 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 Fort Wingate 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 Fort Wingate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fort Wingate — the short answer
Fort Wingate, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Fort Wingate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Wingate's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Wingate
Each reading below is measured for Fort Wingate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFort Wingate runs about 170 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
MeasuredFort Wingate sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Fort Wingate is in
Fort Wingate sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fort Wingate's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Fort Wingate
Every plant below cleared Fort Wingate's own zone 6a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Wingate?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Fort Wingate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Wingate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 14N.16W.04.430Nitrate · 1100 ft
- MOUNT TAYLOR RANGER DISTRICT FT WINGATE WCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BEAR SPRINGS PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- IN FRONT OF TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WINGATE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- 15N.16W.30.3443Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 15N.16W.21.330Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 15N.16W.27.2312Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- GIANT TRAVEL CNTR TRKBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- GALLUP NM VORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SMITHS MOBILE AND MINI STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- LOWES 21Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Wingate'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 Fort Wingate.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Fort Wingate
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Wingate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Wingate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Wingate, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 110 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Wingate. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Fort Wingate
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 Fort Wingate average
Your land is one point inside Fort Wingate
Everything above resolves to Fort Wingate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Fort Wingate Average
Fort Wingate Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Fort Wingate
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Wingate
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Wingate's scale: May 1 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Wingate's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Wingate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Wingate, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Wingate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Wingate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Wingate average
How we know this about Fort Wingate
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 Fort Wingate’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 Fort Wingate
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Wingate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Wingate typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Fort Wingate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Wingate typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Wingate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Wingate sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Oct 4, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Wingate?
The federal record around Fort Wingate is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (110), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Fort Wingate?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Wingate's scale — its 6a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Wingate'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 Fort Wingate’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fort Wingate's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,290 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Wingate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fort Wingate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 18 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Wingate, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Wingate's boundary and the 1,290 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Wingate'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 Fort Wingate's 1,290 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 Fort Wingate's 1,290 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Wingate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,290 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Fort Wingate-wide figureread your own land →