Tucumcari, 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.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tucumcari, 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 Tucumcari 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 Tucumcari — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tucumcari — the short answer
Tucumcari, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Tucumcari's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tucumcari's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tucumcari
Each reading below is measured for Tucumcari itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTucumcari runs about 220 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTucumcari 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 Tucumcari is in
Tucumcari sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tucumcari's own centroid rather than borrowed from Quay County.
What Grows in Tucumcari
Every plant below cleared Tucumcari's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tucumcari?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Tucumcari
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tucumcari. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KMART EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- YOCOMS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- QUAY COUNTY BUTANE CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WHITING BROTHERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JACK'S TRUCK REPAIRBrownfields · 800 ft
- BAR F ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KERR MCGEE 6791Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WHITTINGTON MM AND ALICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KMART NUMBER 9264Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY STORE #1803Brownfields · 1500 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #5437Brownfields · 1600 ft
- DICKINCON EMPLEMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tucumcari'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 Tucumcari.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Tucumcari
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tucumcari
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tucumcari
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tucumcari, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Tucumcari. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Tucumcari
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 Tucumcari average
Your land is one point inside Tucumcari
Everything above resolves to Tucumcari as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 city 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 Tucumcari Average
Tucumcari Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Tucumcari
- ●One soil character for all of Tucumcari
- ●Frost dates read at Tucumcari's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tucumcari's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tucumcari
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tucumcari, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tucumcari averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tucumcari — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tucumcari average
How we know this about Tucumcari
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Tucumcari’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Tucumcari
When does frost risk typically end in Tucumcari?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tucumcari typically lands around Mar 31, 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 Apr 21.
When is the first frost in Tucumcari?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tucumcari typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tucumcari?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tucumcari sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tucumcari?
The federal record around Tucumcari is a meaningful one — 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tucumcari?
From about Oct 7 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 Nov 6 (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 Nov 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tucumcari's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tucumcari'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 Tucumcari’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tucumcari's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,084 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tucumcari's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tucumcari's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tucumcari, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tucumcari's boundary and the 6,084 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tucumcari's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tucumcari's 6,084 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Quay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Quay 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 Quay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tucumcari's 6,084 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tucumcari you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,084 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Tucumcari-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoTucumcari sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides