Quemado, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Quemado, 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 Quemado 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 Quemado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Quemado — the short answer
Quemado, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- 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 5b is Quemado's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quemado's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quemado
Each reading below is measured for Quemado itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredQuemado runs about 144 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredQuemado sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Quemado is in
Quemado sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Quemado's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Catron County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Quemado
Every plant below cleared Quemado's own zone 5b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quemado?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Quemado
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quemado. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 01N.16W.03.Nitrate · 900 ft
- ALEGRE MOTEL AND APARTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AT T C RED HILL RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BELL GAS 236Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- QUEMADO ROAD DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 01N.16W.03.220Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- QUEMADO FAMILY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 01N.17W.35.431 Spring Canyon Ranch Well 1Nitrate · 7.3 mi
- 01N.15W.11.Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- QUEMADO RSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
Measured from Quemado'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 Quemado.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quemado
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Quemado
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 Quemado average
Your land is one point inside Quemado
Everything above resolves to Quemado 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 Quemado Average
Quemado Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Quemado
- ●One soil character for all of Quemado
- ●Frost dates read at Quemado's scale: May 20 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quemado's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quemado
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quemado, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quemado averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quemado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quemado average
How we know this about Quemado
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 Quemado’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 Quemado
When does frost risk typically end in Quemado?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quemado typically lands around May 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 Jun 10.
When is the first frost in Quemado?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quemado typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quemado?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quemado sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 27, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quemado?
The federal record around Quemado is light — 14 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Quemado?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Quemado rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Quemado's scale — its 5b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quemado'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 Quemado’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Quemado's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,146 acres it covers and 14 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quemado's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Quemado's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Oct 11 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 14 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quemado, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quemado's boundary and the 1,146 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Quemado sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quemado's 1,146 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Catron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Catron 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 Catron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quemado's 1,146 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quemado you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,146 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Quemado-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoQuemado sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides