Sundance, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sundance, 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 Sundance 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 Sundance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sundance — the short answer
Sundance, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6a is Sundance's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sundance's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sundance
Each reading below is measured for Sundance itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSundance runs about 168 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
MeasuredSundance sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Sundance is in
Sundance sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sundance's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Sundance
Every plant below cleared Sundance's own zone 6a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sundance?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Sundance
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sundance. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 15N.17W.16.3131Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 15N.17W.16.3131ANitrate · 1.4 mi
- 15N.17W.15.1321Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- REHOBOTH CHRISTIAN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 15N.17W.16.21Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- WINGATE FRACTIONATORBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY 6Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 15N.17W.16.2222ANitrate · 1.8 mi
- 15N.17W.15.24142Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 15N.17W.14.1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 15N.17W.14.1ANitrate · 2.2 mi
- 15N.18W.24.23Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sundance'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 Sundance.
Total Sites
358
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sundance
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sundance, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sundance — Nitrate (152 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Sundance
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 Sundance average
Your land is one point inside Sundance
Everything above resolves to Sundance as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sundance Average
Sundance Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Sundance
- ●One soil character for all of Sundance
- ●Frost dates read at Sundance's scale: May 2 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sundance's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sundance
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sundance, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sundance averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sundance — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sundance average
How we know this about Sundance
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 Sundance’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 Sundance
When does frost risk typically end in Sundance?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sundance typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Sundance?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sundance typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sundance?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sundance sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Oct 3, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sundance?
The federal record around Sundance is a meaningful one — 358 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (152), 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 Sundance?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sundance's scale — its 6a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sundance'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 Sundance’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sundance's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,224 acres it covers and 358 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sundance's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sundance's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 17 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 358 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sundance, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sundance's boundary and the 2,224 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sundance'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 Sundance's 2,224 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKinley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKinley 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 McKinley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sundance's 2,224 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sundance you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,224 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 Sundance-wide figureread your own land →