Organ, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Organ, 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 Organ 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 Organ — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Organ — the short answer
Organ, New Mexico: USDA zone 8b, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 552 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 552 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 8b is Organ's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Organ's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Organ
Each reading below is measured for Organ itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrgan runs about 271 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredOrgan sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Organ is in
Organ sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Organ's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doña Ana County.
What Grows in Organ
Every plant below cleared Organ's own zone 8b and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Organ?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Organ
Survey cells within 31 miles of Organ checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 616 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Organ
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Organ. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ORGANUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- POBAR CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PANCHAS VILLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Torpedo MineMining · 0.5 mi
- Franklin ClaimsMining · 0.5 mi
- TorpedoMining · 0.6 mi
- 22S.03E.02.214Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Poor Man's Friend MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Philadelphia MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Memphis MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Copper Bar ProspectMining · 0.7 mi
- HomestakeMining · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Organ'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 Organ.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Organ
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Organ
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Organ
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Organ, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Organ — Mining (83 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Organ
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 Organ average
Your land is one point inside Organ
Everything above resolves to Organ as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 552 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 Organ Average
Organ Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Organ
- ●One soil character for all of Organ
- ●Frost dates read at Organ's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Organ's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Organ
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Organ, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Organ averages can't show:
We read public map data around Organ — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Organ average
How we know this about Organ
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 Organ’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 Organ
When does frost risk typically end in Organ?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Organ typically lands around Feb 28, 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 Mar 21.
When is the first frost in Organ?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Organ typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Organ?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Organ sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 12, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Organ?
The federal record around Organ runs heavier than most — 207 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Organ?
From about Oct 27 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 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 Nov 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Organ's scale — its 8b band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Organ'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 Organ’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Organ's own scale — its own ~271-day season between 28°F freezes, the 552 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Organ's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Organ's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 28 and Nov 26 and the ~271-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Organ, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Organ's boundary and the 552 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Organ's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Organ 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 Organ's 552 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doña Ana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doña Ana 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 Doña Ana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Organ's 552 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Organ you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 552 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 Organ-wide figureread your own land →