Twin Forks, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Twin Forks, 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 Twin Forks 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 Twin Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Twin Forks — the short answer
Twin Forks, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- 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
- ~181
- 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 7a is Twin Forks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Twin Forks's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Twin Forks's own 30-year record measures about 181 days between 28°F killing freezes — 34 days shorter than Otero County's ~215. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Twin Forks's ~181-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 Twin Forks
Each reading below is measured for Twin Forks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTwin Forks runs about 181 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
MeasuredTwin Forks 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 Twin Forks is in
Twin Forks sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Twin Forks's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Otero County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Twin Forks
Every plant below cleared Twin Forks's own zone 7a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Twin Forks?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around Twin Forks
Survey cells within 31 miles of Twin Forks checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 611 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Twin Forks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Twin Forks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLOUDCROFT CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP DUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP CUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP FUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP BLDG 9484Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MCGREGOR RANGE CAMP EUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- 16S.13E.06.111 1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 16S.13E.09.442Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 16S.12E.03.233 8Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 16S.12E.03.233 9Nitrate · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Twin Forks'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 Twin Forks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Twin Forks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Twin Forks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Twin Forks, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Twin Forks. 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 Twin Forks
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 Twin Forks average
Your land is one point inside Twin Forks
Everything above resolves to Twin Forks 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 Twin Forks Average
Twin Forks Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Twin Forks
- ●One soil character for all of Twin Forks
- ●Frost dates read at Twin Forks's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Twin Forks's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Twin Forks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Twin Forks, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Twin Forks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Twin Forks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Twin Forks average
How we know this about Twin Forks
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 Twin Forks’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 Twin Forks
When does frost risk typically end in Twin Forks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Twin Forks typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Twin Forks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Twin Forks 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Twin Forks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Twin Forks sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 10, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Twin Forks?
The federal record around Twin Forks shows 55 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Twin Forks?
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 Twin Forks's scale — its 7a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Twin Forks'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 Twin Forks’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Twin Forks's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,643 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Twin Forks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Twin Forks's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 24 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Twin Forks, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Twin Forks's boundary and the 2,643 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Twin Forks sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Twin Forks 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 Twin Forks's 2,643 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Twin Forks's 2,643 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Twin Forks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,643 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Twin Forks-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoTwin Forks sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides