Ojo Caliente, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Ojo Caliente, 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 Ojo Caliente 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 Ojo Caliente — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ojo Caliente — the short answer
Ojo Caliente, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~187
- 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 6b is Ojo Caliente's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ojo Caliente's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ojo Caliente
Each reading below is measured for Ojo Caliente itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOjo Caliente 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
MeasuredOjo Caliente sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Ojo Caliente is in
Ojo Caliente sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ojo Caliente's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taos County.
What Grows in Ojo Caliente
Every plant below cleared Ojo Caliente's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ojo Caliente?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Ojo Caliente
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ojo Caliente checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 408 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ojo Caliente
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ojo Caliente. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARTINEZ ZACUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Ojo Caliente WellNitrate · 1.0 mi
- ROADSIDE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AT T C OJO CALIENTE RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 24N.08E.24.341Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- OC FUEL STOP LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- OLIVERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FORMER LA PASADA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- LA MADERA MERCANTILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- 25N.08E.24.243Nitrate · 5.1 mi
- 25N.08E.24.222Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- LA MADERA MDWCAPFAS · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ojo Caliente'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 Ojo Caliente.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ojo Caliente
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ojo Caliente
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ojo Caliente, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ojo Caliente — Mining (4 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ojo Caliente
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 Ojo Caliente average
Your land is one point inside Ojo Caliente
Everything above resolves to Ojo Caliente 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 Ojo Caliente Average
Ojo Caliente Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Ojo Caliente
- ●One soil character for all of Ojo Caliente
- ●Frost dates read at Ojo Caliente's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ojo Caliente's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ojo Caliente
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ojo Caliente, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ojo Caliente averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ojo Caliente — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ojo Caliente average
How we know this about Ojo Caliente
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 Ojo Caliente’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 Ojo Caliente
When does frost risk typically end in Ojo Caliente?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ojo Caliente typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Ojo Caliente?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ojo Caliente 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ojo Caliente?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ojo Caliente sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 12, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ojo Caliente?
The federal record around Ojo Caliente shows 29 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ojo Caliente?
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 Ojo Caliente's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ojo Caliente'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 Ojo Caliente’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ojo Caliente's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,693 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ojo Caliente's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ojo Caliente's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 26 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ojo Caliente, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ojo Caliente's boundary and the 1,693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ojo Caliente's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ojo Caliente 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 Ojo Caliente's 1,693 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taos 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 Taos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ojo Caliente's 1,693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ojo Caliente you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,693 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ojo Caliente-wide figureread your own land →