Ponderosa Pine, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ponderosa Pine, 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 Ponderosa Pine 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 Ponderosa Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ponderosa Pine — the short answer
Ponderosa Pine, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Ponderosa Pine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ponderosa Pine's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Ponderosa Pine's own 30-year record measures about 182 days between 28°F killing freezes — 35 days shorter than Bernalillo County's ~217. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Ponderosa Pine's ~182-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ponderosa Pine
Each reading below is measured for Ponderosa Pine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPonderosa Pine runs about 182 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
MeasuredPonderosa Pine 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 Ponderosa Pine is in
Ponderosa Pine sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Ponderosa Pine's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bernalillo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ponderosa Pine
Every plant below cleared Ponderosa Pine's own zone 7a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ponderosa Pine?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — 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 Ponderosa Pine
Survey cells within 31 miles of Ponderosa Pine checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 470 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Ponderosa Pine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09N.06E.30.432Nitrate · 750 ft
- 09N.06E.30.441Nitrate · 1300 ft
- MORNING STAR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 09N.06E.30.132Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 09N.06E.30.123Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 09N.06E.31.131Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 09N.06E.29.332Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 09N.06E.30.121Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 09N.06E.29.114Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 09N.06E.31.413Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 09N.06E.20.333Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 09N.06E.29.142 DUPNitrate · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ponderosa Pine'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 Ponderosa Pine.
Total Sites
381
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ponderosa Pine, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 332 sites within ~10 miles of Ponderosa Pine. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Ponderosa Pine
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 Ponderosa Pine average
Your land is one point inside Ponderosa Pine
Everything above resolves to Ponderosa Pine as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Ponderosa Pine Average
Ponderosa Pine Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ponderosa Pine
- ●One soil character for all of Ponderosa Pine
- ●Frost dates read at Ponderosa Pine's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ponderosa Pine's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ponderosa Pine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ponderosa Pine, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ponderosa Pine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ponderosa Pine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ponderosa Pine average
How we know this about Ponderosa Pine
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 Ponderosa Pine’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 Ponderosa Pine
When does frost risk typically end in Ponderosa Pine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderosa Pine typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Ponderosa Pine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ponderosa Pine typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ponderosa Pine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ponderosa Pine sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 9, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ponderosa Pine?
The federal record around Ponderosa Pine is a meaningful one — 381 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (332), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ponderosa Pine?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ponderosa Pine's scale — its 7a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ponderosa Pine'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 Ponderosa Pine’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Ponderosa Pine's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,131 acres it covers and 381 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ponderosa Pine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ponderosa Pine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 23 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 381 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ponderosa Pine, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ponderosa Pine's boundary and the 5,131 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ponderosa Pine sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Ponderosa Pine 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 Ponderosa Pine's 5,131 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bernalillo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bernalillo 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 Bernalillo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ponderosa Pine's 5,131 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ponderosa Pine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,131 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Ponderosa Pine-wide figureread your own land →
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