Los Chaves, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Los Chaves, 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 Los Chaves 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 Los Chaves — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Los Chaves — the short answer
Los Chaves, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 7a is Los Chaves's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Los Chaves's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Los Chaves
Each reading below is measured for Los Chaves itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLos Chaves runs about 197 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
MeasuredLos Chaves sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Los Chaves is in
Los Chaves sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Los Chaves's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valencia County.
What Grows in Los Chaves
Every plant below cleared Los Chaves's own zone 7a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Los Chaves?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — 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.
Documented around Los Chaves
Survey cells within 31 miles of Los Chaves checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 472 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Los Chaves
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Los Chaves. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLSUPS - NO137Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 06N.02E.18.232Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- NEW MEXICO TRACTOR SALESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- CATTLEMENS LIVESTOCK AUCTIONCAFO · 1.6 mi
- CEMCO, INC.Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- CAVCO INDS L L C NEW MEXICOToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- PAULS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LOS LUNAS MERCURYSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- FOX LP GAS CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CIRCLE K 762Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ROBERTS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NORTH EL CERRO LOOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Los Chaves'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 Los Chaves.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Los Chaves
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Los Chaves
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Los Chaves, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Los Chaves. 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 Los Chaves
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 Los Chaves average
Your land is one point inside Los Chaves
Everything above resolves to Los Chaves as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Los Chaves Average
Los Chaves Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Los Chaves
- ●One soil character for all of Los Chaves
- ●Frost dates read at Los Chaves's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Los Chaves's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Los Chaves
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Los Chaves, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Los Chaves averages can't show:
We read public map data around Los Chaves — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Los Chaves average
How we know this about Los Chaves
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 Los Chaves’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 Los Chaves
When does frost risk typically end in Los Chaves?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Los Chaves typically lands around Apr 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Los Chaves?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Los Chaves typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Los Chaves?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Los Chaves sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 12, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Los Chaves?
The federal record around Los Chaves is a meaningful one — 244 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Los Chaves?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Los Chaves's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Los Chaves'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 Los Chaves’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Los Chaves's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,318 acres it covers and 244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Los Chaves's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Los Chaves's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 26 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Los Chaves, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Los Chaves's boundary and the 7,318 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Los Chaves's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Los Chaves checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Los Chaves's 7,318 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Valencia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Valencia 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 Valencia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Los Chaves's 7,318 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Los Chaves you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,318 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Los Chaves-wide figureread your own land →
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