San Fidel, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Fidel, 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 San Fidel 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 San Fidel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Fidel — the short answer
San Fidel, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 San Fidel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Fidel's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
San Fidel's own 30-year record measures about 183 days between 28°F killing freezes — 33 days longer than Cibola County's ~150. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against San Fidel's ~183-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 San Fidel
Each reading below is measured for San Fidel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSan Fidel runs about 183 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
MeasuredSan Fidel 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 San Fidel is in
San Fidel sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at San Fidel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in San Fidel
Every plant below cleared San Fidel's own zone 6b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Fidel?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near San Fidel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Fidel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 10N.07W.20.200Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- SKYWAY TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WHITING BROTHERS 79Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OLD TEXACO STATION AND POST OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 10N.07W.20.233Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 10N.07W.18.331Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 10N.07W.29.213 Pueblo Test 4Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 10N.07W.29.214Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 10N.07W.28.400Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 10N.07W.27.200Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 10N.07W.27.330Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 10N.07W.27.000Nitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Fidel'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 San Fidel.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of San Fidel
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Fidel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Fidel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Fidel, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 80 sites within ~10 miles of San Fidel. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 San Fidel
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 San Fidel average
Your land is one point inside San Fidel
Everything above resolves to San Fidel 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 San Fidel Average
San Fidel Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across San Fidel
- ●One soil character for all of San Fidel
- ●Frost dates read at San Fidel's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Fidel's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Fidel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Fidel, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Fidel averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Fidel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Fidel average
How we know this about San Fidel
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 San Fidel’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 San Fidel
When does frost risk typically end in San Fidel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Fidel typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in San Fidel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Fidel 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 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Fidel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Fidel sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 9, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Fidel?
The federal record around San Fidel is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (80), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 San Fidel?
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 San Fidel's scale — its 6b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Fidel'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 San Fidel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at San Fidel's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,693 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Fidel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- San Fidel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 23 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Fidel, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Fidel's boundary and the 2,693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Fidel's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Fidel's 2,693 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Fidel's 2,693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Fidel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,693 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 San Fidel-wide figureread your own land →