Madrone, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madrone, 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 Madrone 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 Madrone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madrone — the short answer
Madrone, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Madrone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madrone's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madrone
Each reading below is measured for Madrone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadrone runs about 213 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
MeasuredMadrone 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 Madrone is in
Madrone sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Madrone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valencia County.
What Grows in Madrone
Every plant below cleared Madrone's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madrone?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Madrone
Survey cells within 31 miles of Madrone checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 482 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Madrone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madrone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 04N.02E.11.211Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 04N.02E.08.243 ProjectedNitrate · 1.3 mi
- MESA OIL, INC.Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- PUCCI DISTRIBUTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CLARIANT CORPORATION BELENBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- POLYMER PANEL PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- VALENCIA POWER PLANTBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- ARCOSA WIND TOWERS INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- ARCOSA WIND TOWERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- 03N.02E.06.420Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- MIDWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 04N.02E.15.443Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madrone'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 Madrone.
Total Sites
137
within ~10 miles of Madrone
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madrone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madrone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madrone, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Madrone. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Madrone
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 Madrone average
Your land is one point inside Madrone
Everything above resolves to Madrone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Madrone Average
Madrone Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Madrone
- ●One soil character for all of Madrone
- ●Frost dates read at Madrone's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madrone's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madrone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madrone, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madrone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madrone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madrone average
How we know this about Madrone
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 Madrone’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 Madrone
When does frost risk typically end in Madrone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madrone typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Madrone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madrone typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madrone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madrone sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 20, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madrone?
The federal record around Madrone shows 137 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Nitrate 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 Madrone?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madrone's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madrone'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 Madrone’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Madrone's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,970 acres it covers and 137 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madrone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madrone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 137 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madrone, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madrone's boundary and the 1,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Madrone's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Madrone 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 Madrone's 1,970 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 Madrone's 1,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madrone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,970 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Madrone-wide figureread your own land →