What USDA hardiness zone is Lincoln County, New Mexico?

Lincoln County, New Mexico spans USDA hardiness zones 7a to 7b. 67% of its ZIP codes are zone 7a, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Lincoln County, New Mexico?

The median last spring freeze runs April 19 – May 11 across the 5 NOAA weather stations serving Lincoln County, New Mexico, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

New Mexico

Planting zones in Lincoln County, New Mexico

This county spans USDA zones 7a to 7b, so there is no single zone for Lincoln County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 67% of its ZIP codes are zone 7a; the rest are not.

USDA zones 7a–7b 2 zones across 15 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 15 15 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 5 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 4,831 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Lincoln County, New Mexico as a whole. Hardiness zones and freeze dates are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact — enter it and this page will tell you your zone, which NOAA station it comes from and how far away that station is.

The growing season in Lincoln County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 5 – October 25 across the 5 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around February 22 – March 16 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 19 – May 11 here.

Every spring date for your ZIP →

These are ranges across the whole county. The ZIP lookup above gives the dates from your own nearest station instead.

All 5 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 5 NOAA stations serving this county counts May 11 – October 5 as growing season (147 days). Widening to any single station gives April 19 – October 25 (189 days).

That is a 42-day difference inside one county — which is why this page gives ranges rather than a single planting date. The ZIP lookup above resolves it to one station.

Which zone you are in depends where you are

Lincoln County covers 2 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 67% in zone 7a and wrong for the other 33%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
7a	10	67%
7b	5	33%

Zones are published per ZIP code, so yours is exact even though the county's is not. The hardiness tool will tell you which one you are in.

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 19 – May 11

First fall freeze October 5 – October 25

Across the 5 NOAA stations serving this county. These are medians — half of years freeze later than the date shown — so treat the later end of each range as the cautious one.

The growing season runs 147–188 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 80.4–89.6 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 6.0–10.6" across those 5 stations, against the rough inch a week — about 13 inches over the same 92 days — that a vegetable garden is usually reckoned to want. The middle station covers about 59% of it, so expect to make up the rest. The inches are NOAA's published normals; the inch a week is a rule of thumb, and it takes no account of a 85 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Lincoln County

Zones are published per ZIP code, not per county, so this is the exact answer rather than the county's average. The station column is the nearest one to that ZIP code's centroid and how far away it is — the same figure the tools use, shown here so you can see which ZIP codes are well covered and which are reaching.

ZIP code	USDA zone	Nearest NOAA station	Distance
88301	7a	Carrizozo 1Sw, NM	13.8 km
88312	7a	Ruidoso, NM	7.3 km
88316	7a	Capitan, NM	33.8 km
88318	7a	Corona 10Sw, NM	19.2 km
88323	7a	Capitan, NM	5.8 km
88324	7b	Capitan, NM	13.6 km
88336	7b	Picacho, NM	12.8 km
88338	7a	Capitan, NM	19.5 km
88341	7a	Carrizozo 1Sw, NM	18.1 km
88343	7b	Picacho, NM	14.5 km
88345	7a	Ruidoso, NM	1.9 km
88346	7a	Ruidoso, NM	11.4 km
88348	7b	Capitan, NM	22.0 km
88351	7b	Picacho, NM	14.0 km
88355	7a	Ruidoso, NM	0.9 km

ZIP-code positions are area centroids, so a large rural ZIP code's listed distance is measured from the middle of its area rather than from any particular address in it.

When to start seeds in Lincoln County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 5 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	February 22 – March 16	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	February 22 – March 16	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 8 – March 30	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 15 – April 6	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 15 – April 6	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 15 – April 6	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	March 22 – April 13	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	March 29 – April 20	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 5 – April 27	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 12 – May 4	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	April 26 – May 18	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 3 – May 25	2 wk after

Offsets are published guidance; the dates they land on are computed from measured NOAA normals. The seed-starting tool does this for your own ZIP code and counts the days.

What survives the winter changes across Lincoln County

Zone 7a carries 58 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 7b carries 56. The best number is not always the warmest zone — the count peaks in the middle and falls both ways, because the warm end loses plants to insufficient winter chill and summer heat, not to cold.

Hardiness ranges are a judgement, published by growers rather than measured; the zone they are compared against is measured. On a warm-end verdict, check with your local extension service — a coastal zone 8 and an inland zone 8 are not the same summer.

Cautious — shortens the seasonMedian across stationsOptimistic

Last spring freeze: Plan to May 22 to be careful. Median April 19 – May 11 across 5 stations; April 4 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 24 to be careful. Median October 5 – October 25 across 5 stations; November 5 is the optimistic end.

NOAA publishes these as probabilities, not averages — the middle figure is a median, so half of years fall either side of it. The cautious end is the 10% tail: in roughly nine years in ten the freeze falls on the safe side of it.

The 5 stations behind these numbers

All 5 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 89 km north to south. Every one is named with its identifier in the station list below — this page does not single one out, because no one station speaks for a whole county.

A relative sketch, not a map with a projection: longitude is adjusted for latitude so the shape is not stretched, and there is no basemap. For the one station nearest a specific address, with its real distance, use the ZIP lookup above.

These are the stations this county's ZIP codes actually cite as nearest — not a claim that each one sits inside its boundary, since a rural ZIP legitimately reaches over it. Every figure above comes from them, and each is named so you can check it.

Station	NOAA ID	Last spring freeze	First fall freeze	Season
Capitan, NM	USC00291440	May 3	October 12	161 days
Carrizozo 1Sw, NM	USC00291515	April 27	October 20	175 days
Corona 10Sw, NM	USC00292095	April 29	October 20	172 days
Picacho, NM	USC00296804	April 19	October 25	188 days
Ruidoso, NM	USC00297649	May 11	October 5	147 days

These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.

Your own ZIP

Work out your own dates

This page describes a whole county. Every tool below answers for one ZIP code, which is the grain the underlying data is published at.

Other places to compare

Lincoln County sits in New Mexico. That page carries the whole state's zone spread, its metro areas, and every other county in it with a page here.

More of New Mexico

Counties with the same zones — 7a–7b

Matched on the exact zone set, not a dominant zone, so the winter answer on these pages really is the same one as here.

Gear

If you want to act on this

Each link opens an Amazon search rather than a product we picked. We have not tested these and do not rank them — the search is the honest version, and you choose.

Row cover and frost clothThe season here closes at the first fall freeze dated above — a cover buys back some of those days at the end.
MulchFor the perennials nearest their cold limit in zone 7a, where an insulated crown is what decides whether they come back.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. That costs you nothing extra, and it buys no influence over anything on this site: the dates come from NOAA normals and the zones from the USDA, and no product affects either.

Sources

Where these numbers come from

Hardiness zones are the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. Freeze dates and growing-season lengths are NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, taken per station and cited above by name and NOAA ID.

County boundaries come from the Census ZCTA-to-county relation, which is what places each ZIP code — and which treats parishes, boroughs and census areas as county equivalents. No station is chosen to represent this county: every range above is taken across all of them and the count is stated, because picking one would be a judgement dressed as a measurement.