Tohatchi, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tohatchi, 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 Tohatchi 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 Tohatchi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tohatchi — the short answer
Tohatchi, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Tohatchi's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tohatchi's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tohatchi
Each reading below is measured for Tohatchi itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTohatchi runs about 184 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
MeasuredTohatchi 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 Tohatchi is in
Tohatchi sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tohatchi's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Tohatchi
Every plant below cleared Tohatchi's own zone 7a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tohatchi?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 24 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Tohatchi
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tohatchi. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NMSHD TOHATCHIUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOHATCHI WATER OPER AND MAINTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 19N.18W.21.413Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- TOHATCHI SPECIAL EDUCATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- NR088.0090X0990Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 19N.18W.21.144Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NR088.0090X0980Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NR088.0060X0960Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NR088.0170X1215Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- NR087.1280X1290Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- NR088.0350X1280Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- NR087.0980X1060Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tohatchi'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 Tohatchi.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tohatchi
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tohatchi
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tohatchi, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 94 sites within ~10 miles of Tohatchi. 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 Tohatchi
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 Tohatchi average
Your land is one point inside Tohatchi
Everything above resolves to Tohatchi as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Tohatchi Average
Tohatchi Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tohatchi
- ●One soil character for all of Tohatchi
- ●Frost dates read at Tohatchi's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tohatchi's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tohatchi
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tohatchi, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tohatchi averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tohatchi — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tohatchi average
How we know this about Tohatchi
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 Tohatchi’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 Tohatchi
When does frost risk typically end in Tohatchi?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tohatchi 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 Tohatchi?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tohatchi typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tohatchi?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tohatchi sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tohatchi?
The federal record around Tohatchi shows 99 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tohatchi?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tohatchi's scale — its 7a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tohatchi'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 Tohatchi’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tohatchi's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,140 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tohatchi's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tohatchi's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tohatchi, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tohatchi's boundary and the 4,140 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tohatchi'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 Tohatchi's 4,140 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 Tohatchi's 4,140 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tohatchi you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,140 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Tohatchi-wide figureread your own land →