Rio Chiquito, 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.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rio Chiquito, 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 Rio Chiquito 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 Rio Chiquito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rio Chiquito — the short answer
Rio Chiquito, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 688 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- 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
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 688 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 Rio Chiquito's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rio Chiquito's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rio Chiquito
Each reading below is measured for Rio Chiquito itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRio Chiquito runs about 190 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
MeasuredRio Chiquito 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 Rio Chiquito is in
Rio Chiquito sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rio Chiquito's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Fe County.
What Grows in Rio Chiquito
Every plant below cleared Rio Chiquito's own zone 7a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rio Chiquito?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Rio Chiquito
Survey cells within 31 miles of Rio Chiquito checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 429 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Rio Chiquito
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rio Chiquito. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 20N.09E.01.220Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- GARCIA'S AUTO PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MARTINEZ O M STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MEDINA SAMMY AND EILEENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- AGUILAR LOUIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- ERIC'S AUTOWORKSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- RESIDENCE OF LORY RINGQUISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 20N.10E.17.441Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 21N.10E.35.321Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- MARTINEZ VENCES OUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MEDINA RICHARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- Rocking Chair Nos. 1 and 2Mining · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rio Chiquito'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 Rio Chiquito.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rio Chiquito
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rio Chiquito
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rio Chiquito, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Rio Chiquito. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Rio Chiquito
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 Rio Chiquito average
Your land is one point inside Rio Chiquito
Everything above resolves to Rio Chiquito as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 688 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 Rio Chiquito Average
Rio Chiquito Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Rio Chiquito
- ●One soil character for all of Rio Chiquito
- ●Frost dates read at Rio Chiquito's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rio Chiquito's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rio Chiquito
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rio Chiquito, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rio Chiquito averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rio Chiquito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rio Chiquito average
How we know this about Rio Chiquito
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 Rio Chiquito’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 Rio Chiquito
When does frost risk typically end in Rio Chiquito?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rio Chiquito typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Rio Chiquito?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rio Chiquito 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 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rio Chiquito?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rio Chiquito sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 12, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rio Chiquito?
The federal record around Rio Chiquito is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Rio Chiquito?
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 Rio Chiquito's scale — its 7a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rio Chiquito'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 Rio Chiquito’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Rio Chiquito's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 688 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rio Chiquito's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rio Chiquito's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 26 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rio Chiquito, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rio Chiquito's boundary and the 688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rio Chiquito's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Rio Chiquito 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 Rio Chiquito's 688 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rio Chiquito's 688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rio Chiquito you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 688 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Rio Chiquito-wide figureread your own land →