What USDA hardiness zone is Otero County, Colorado?

Every ZIP code in Otero County, Colorado is USDA hardiness zone 6a, from the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map.

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

The median last spring freeze runs April 26 – May 2 across the 5 NOAA weather stations serving Otero County, Colorado, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

Colorado

Planting zones in Otero County, Colorado

Every ZIP code in this county is USDA zone 6a — so unlike most of the places people look up, there is one right answer here and it holds wherever you are in the county.

USDA zone 6a The same in all 5 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 5 5 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 5 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 1,262 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Otero 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 Otero County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 8 – October 15 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 March 1 – March 7 — counted back from a last spring freeze of April 26 – May 2 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 2 – October 8 as growing season (159 days). Widening to any single station gives April 26 – October 15 (172 days).

Your freeze dates

Last spring freeze April 26 – May 2

First fall freeze October 8 – October 15

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 159–171 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 89.5–91.4 °F in June–August. That is past the point where tomato and pepper pollen fails and cool-season greens bolt, so in this county heat decides as much as frost does. Summer rain over the same months runs 5.4–6.3" 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 44% 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 91 °F summer afternoon drying the soil faster than a cool one.

Every ZIP code in Otero 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
81030	6a	Cheraw 1 N, CO	1.1 km
81050	6a	La Junta 20 S, CO	11.6 km
81058	6a	Ordway 1 Ene, CO	18.4 km
81067	6a	Rocky Ford 2 SE, CO	3.6 km
81077	6a	La Junta, CO	7.4 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 Otero 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	March 1 – March 7	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	March 1 – March 7	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	March 15 – March 21	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	March 22 – March 28	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	March 22 – March 28	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	March 22 – March 28	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	March 29 – April 4	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	April 5 – April 11	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	April 12 – April 18	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	April 19 – April 25	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	May 3 – May 9	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	May 10 – May 16	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	May 10 – May 16	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	May 10 – May 16	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	May 10 – May 16	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	May 10 – May 16	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	May 10 – May 16	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 lives through a zone 6a winter

Of 74 perennial edibles, 51 come through a zone 6a winter — and 0 fail here for being too warm rather than too cold, needing more winter chill than this county gets or more heat than they tolerate. Among the ones that work: Cranberry, Honeyberry, Lingonberry, Apple, Aronia, Black Currant, Elderberry, Gooseberry.

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 14 to be careful. Median April 26 – May 2 across 5 stations; April 10 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 25 to be careful. Median October 8 – October 15 across 5 stations; October 26 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 52 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
Cheraw 1 N, CO	USC00051539	April 30	October 10	163 days
La Junta 20 S, CO	USC00054726	April 27	October 14	168 days
La Junta, CO	USC00054724	April 26	October 15	171 days
Ordway 1 Ene, CO	USC00056131	May 2	October 8	159 days
Rocky Ford 2 SE, CO	USC00057167	May 1	October 8	159 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

Otero 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

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.

Shade clothSummer highs here average 91 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
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.

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.