Moriarty, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moriarty, 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 Moriarty 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 Moriarty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Moriarty — the short answer
Moriarty, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6a is Moriarty's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moriarty's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moriarty
Each reading below is measured for Moriarty itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoriarty runs about 164 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
MeasuredMoriarty 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 Moriarty is in
Moriarty sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Moriarty's own centroid rather than borrowed from Torrance County.
What Grows in Moriarty
Every plant below cleared Moriarty's own zone 6a and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moriarty?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Moriarty
Survey cells within 31 miles of Moriarty checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 478 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Moriarty
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moriarty. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MORIARTY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE #2701430Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FORMER BLACKIES PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ASC INO MORIARTY MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ARMASPEC INC.Brownfields · 1900 ft
- 09N.08E.14.422Nitrate · 2000 ft
- OLD YUCCA MOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #475Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LAMBARDO PATRICIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ESTANCIA VALLEY CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEVRON 76123Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BOBBYS PHILLIPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moriarty'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 Moriarty.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moriarty
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moriarty
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moriarty, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 140 sites within ~10 miles of Moriarty. 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 Moriarty
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 Moriarty average
Your land is one point inside Moriarty
Everything above resolves to Moriarty 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 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 Moriarty Average
Moriarty Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Moriarty
- ●One soil character for all of Moriarty
- ●Frost dates read at Moriarty's scale: May 3 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moriarty's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moriarty
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moriarty, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moriarty averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moriarty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moriarty average
How we know this about Moriarty
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 Moriarty’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 Moriarty
When does frost risk typically end in Moriarty?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moriarty typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Moriarty?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moriarty typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moriarty?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moriarty sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 30, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moriarty?
The federal record around Moriarty shows 196 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Moriarty?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Moriarty's scale — its 6a band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moriarty'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 Moriarty’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Moriarty's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,438 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moriarty's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moriarty's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 14 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moriarty, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moriarty's boundary and the 4,438 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moriarty's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Moriarty 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 Moriarty's 4,438 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Torrance County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Torrance 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 Torrance County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moriarty's 4,438 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moriarty you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,438 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Moriarty-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoMoriarty sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides