Torreon, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Torreon, 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 Torreon 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 Torreon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Torreon — the short answer
Torreon, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Torreon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Torreon's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Torreon
Each reading below is measured for Torreon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTorreon runs about 180 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
MeasuredTorreon 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 Torreon is in
Torreon sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Torreon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Torrance County.
What Grows in Torreon
Every plant below cleared Torreon's own zone 6b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Torreon?
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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Torreon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Torreon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 486 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Torreon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Torreon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TORRANCE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MIT WEATHER RADAR SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- RAYS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 06N.06E.14.111ANitrate · 2.3 mi
- 06N.06E.11.343Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 06N.06E.22.431Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 06N.06E.27.124Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 05N.06E.10.344Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 06N.07E.15.434Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 07N.07E.29.343Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 06N.07E.10.300 DUPNitrate · 6.8 mi
- 05N.07E.15.212Nitrate · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Torreon'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 Torreon.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Torreon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Torreon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Torreon. 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 Torreon
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 Torreon average
Your land is one point inside Torreon
Everything above resolves to Torreon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Torreon Average
Torreon Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Torreon
- ●One soil character for all of Torreon
- ●Frost dates read at Torreon's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Torreon's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Torreon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Torreon, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Torreon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Torreon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Torreon average
How we know this about Torreon
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 Torreon’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 Torreon
When does frost risk typically end in Torreon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Torreon 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 Torreon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Torreon typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Torreon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Torreon sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 6, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Torreon?
The federal record around Torreon is light — 37 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 I protect my plants from frost in Torreon?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Torreon's scale — its 6b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Torreon'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 Torreon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Torreon's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,300 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Torreon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Torreon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 20 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Torreon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Torreon's boundary and the 5,300 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Torreon's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Torreon 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 Torreon's 5,300 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Torrance County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Torrance 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 Torrance County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Torreon's 5,300 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Torreon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,300 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Torreon-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoTorreon sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides