Mountainair, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Mountainair, 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 Mountainair 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 Mountainair — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mountainair — the short answer
Mountainair, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Mountainair's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountainair's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountainair
Each reading below is measured for Mountainair itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMountainair runs about 187 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
MeasuredMountainair 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 Mountainair is in
Mountainair sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Mountainair's own centroid rather than borrowed from Torrance County.
What Grows in Mountainair
Every plant below cleared Mountainair's own zone 7a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountainair?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Mountainair
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountainair. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEAVER HOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- IVAN RILEY FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TOMS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LIBERTY VALLEY TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN #746Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HAIL EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 04N.07E.32.414Nitrate · 2600 ft
- CAR WASH CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AKIN MOUNTAINAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SCHOLLE RSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- AT AND SF MOUNTAINAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 03N.07E.20.114Nitrate · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountainair'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 Mountainair.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Mountainair
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
38 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountainair
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountainair, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Mountainair. 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 Mountainair
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 Mountainair average
Your land is one point inside Mountainair
Everything above resolves to Mountainair as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mountainair Average
Mountainair Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Mountainair
- ●One soil character for all of Mountainair
- ●Frost dates read at Mountainair's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountainair's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountainair
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountainair, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountainair averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountainair — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountainair average
How we know this about Mountainair
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 Mountainair’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 Mountainair
When does frost risk typically end in Mountainair?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountainair typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Mountainair?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountainair typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountainair?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountainair sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 10, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountainair?
The federal record around Mountainair shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), 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 Mountainair?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountainair's scale — its 7a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountainair'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 Mountainair’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mountainair's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,012 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountainair's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mountainair's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 24 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountainair, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountainair's boundary and the 1,012 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mountainair's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountainair's 1,012 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 Mountainair's 1,012 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountainair you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,012 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 Mountainair-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoMountainair sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides