Magdalena, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Magdalena, 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 Magdalena 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 Magdalena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Magdalena — the short answer
Magdalena, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Magdalena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Magdalena's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Magdalena
Each reading below is measured for Magdalena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMagdalena 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
MeasuredMagdalena 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 Magdalena is in
Magdalena sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Magdalena's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Socorro County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Magdalena
Every plant below cleared Magdalena'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 Magdalena?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — 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 Magdalena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Magdalena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03020427241Nitrate · 2300 ft
- MAGDALENA MUNICIPAL SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER TWELVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRIANGLE C RANCH AUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CavalierMining · 0.6 mi
- SOCORRO FIELD OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEAR TRAP FIRE DRUMSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 02S.04W.22.434Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- GUINS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- NMDOT MAGDALENA PATROL YARD 41 55Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MAGDALENA STEER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Magdalena DistrictMining · 1.2 mi
- Belle Claim Patented In 1882Mining · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Magdalena'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 Magdalena.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Magdalena
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Magdalena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Magdalena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Magdalena, Mining runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Magdalena. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Magdalena
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 Magdalena average
Your land is one point inside Magdalena
Everything above resolves to Magdalena as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Magdalena Average
Magdalena Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Magdalena
- ●One soil character for all of Magdalena
- ●Frost dates read at Magdalena's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Magdalena's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Magdalena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Magdalena, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Magdalena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Magdalena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Magdalena average
How we know this about Magdalena
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 Magdalena’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 Magdalena
When does frost risk typically end in Magdalena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Magdalena typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Magdalena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Magdalena typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Magdalena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Magdalena sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 16, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Magdalena?
The federal record around Magdalena runs heavier than most — 103 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (71), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Magdalena?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Magdalena's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Magdalena'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 Magdalena’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Magdalena's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,983 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Magdalena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Magdalena's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 30 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Magdalena, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Magdalena's boundary and the 3,983 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Magdalena sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Magdalena's 3,983 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Socorro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Socorro 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 Socorro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Magdalena's 3,983 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Magdalena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,983 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 Magdalena-wide figureread your own land →
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