Jal, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jal, 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 Jal 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 Jal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jal — the short answer
Jal, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 8a is Jal's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jal's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jal
Each reading below is measured for Jal itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJal runs about 251 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
MeasuredJal 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 Jal is in
Jal sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Jal's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lea County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Jal
Every plant below cleared Jal's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jal?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Jal
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jal. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 25S.37E.20.31Nitrate · 550 ft
- 25S.37E.20.311Nitrate · 650 ft
- GTSW JAL CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- OLD POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- X L TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JAL PUBLIC SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TIVOS GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JAL GASCARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STRIPES 184Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WESTERN PETROLEUM #8606Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- P AND O OILFIELD SERVICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ALLSUPS - NO32Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jal'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 Jal.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Jal
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jal
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jal
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jal, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jal — Nitrate (18 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Jal
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 Jal average
Your land is one point inside Jal
Everything above resolves to Jal as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Jal Average
Jal Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Jal
- ●One soil character for all of Jal
- ●Frost dates read at Jal's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jal's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jal
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jal, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jal averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jal — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jal average
How we know this about Jal
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Jal’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Jal
When does frost risk typically end in Jal?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jal typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Jal?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jal typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jal?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jal sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 4, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jal?
The federal record around Jal shows 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Jal?
From about Oct 19 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 Nov 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 Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jal's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jal'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 Jal’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jal's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,087 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jal's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jal's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 18 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jal, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jal's boundary and the 3,087 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jal sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jal's 3,087 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lea County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lea 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 Lea County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jal's 3,087 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jal you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,087 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Jal-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Growing region
Nearby growing guides