What USDA hardiness zone is Montezuma County, Colorado?

Montezuma County, Colorado spans USDA hardiness zones 6a to 7a. 43% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b, so there is no single zone for the county.

When is the last spring frost in Montezuma County, Colorado?

The median last spring freeze runs May 6 – June 4 across the 6 NOAA weather stations serving Montezuma County, Colorado, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Colorado

Planting zones in Montezuma County, Colorado

This county spans USDA zones 6a to 7a, so there is no single zone for Montezuma County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 43% of its ZIP codes are zone 6b; the rest are not.

USDA zones 6a–7a 3 zones across 7 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 7 7 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 6 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 2,029 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Montezuma County, Colorado 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 Montezuma County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives September 24 – October 14 across the 6 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around March 11 – April 9 — counted back from a last spring freeze of May 6 – June 4 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 6 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 6 NOAA stations serving this county counts June 4 – September 24 as growing season (112 days). Widening to any single station gives May 6 – October 14 (161 days).

That is a 49-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

Montezuma County covers 3 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 43% in zone 6b and wrong for the other 57%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
6b	3	43%
7a	3	43%
6a	1	14%

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 May 6 – June 4

First fall freeze September 24 – October 14

Across the 6 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 111–158 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 78.9–88.1 °F in June–August. Summer rain over the same months runs 3.0–4.0" 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 30% 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 84 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Montezuma 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
81321	7a	Cortez Montezuma Co AP, CO	9.5 km
81327	6b	Yellow Jacket 4Ne, CO	4.8 km
81328	6a	Mancos 1Sw, CO	7.2 km
81330	7a	Cortez 8 SE, CO	3.2 km
81331	6b	Yellow Jacket 2W, CO	15.9 km
81334	7a	Mesa Verde Np, CO	12.5 km
81335	6b	Yellow Jacket 2W, CO	4.0 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 Montezuma County

Every date below is anchored on the last spring freeze at each station and reported as a range across all 6 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	March 11 – April 9	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	March 11 – April 9	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 25 – April 23	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	April 1 – April 30	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	April 1 – April 30	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	April 1 – April 30	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	April 8 – May 7	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	April 15 – May 14	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 22 – May 21	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 29 – May 28	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	May 13 – June 11	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 20 – June 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 20 – June 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 20 – June 18	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 20 – June 18	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 20 – June 18	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 20 – June 18	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 Montezuma County

Zone 7a carries 58 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 6a carries 51. 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 June 19 to be careful. Median May 6 – June 4 across 6 stations; April 22 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 9 to be careful. Median September 24 – October 14 across 6 stations; November 2 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 6 stations behind these numbers

All 6 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 40 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
Cortez 8 SE, CO	USW00003061	May 6	October 14	158 days
Cortez Montezuma Co AP, CO	USW00093069	May 27	September 28	125 days
Mancos 1Sw, CO	USC00055327	June 4	September 24	111 days
Mesa Verde Np, CO	USC00055531	May 9	October 14	156 days
Yellow Jacket 2W, CO	USC00059275	May 17	October 9	145 days
Yellow Jacket 4Ne, CO	USC00059278	May 15	October 8	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

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

More of Colorado

Counties with the same zones — 6a–7a

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.

Trunk wrapZone 6a is cold enough that winter sun on a young trunk does more damage than the cold does.
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 6a, 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.