What USDA hardiness zone is Otero County, New Mexico?

Otero County, New Mexico spans USDA hardiness zones 7a to 8b. 35% of its ZIP codes are zone 8a, so there is no single zone for the county.

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

The median last spring freeze runs March 9 – May 18 across the 9 NOAA weather stations serving Otero County, New Mexico, from NOAA 1991-2020 Climate Normals. Half of years freeze later than the median.

New Mexico

Planting zones in Otero County, New Mexico

This county spans USDA zones 7a to 8b, so there is no single zone for Otero County and anyone who gives you one is rounding. 35% of its ZIP codes are zone 8a; the rest are not.

USDA zones 7a–8b 4 zones across 17 ZIP codes

ZIP codes 17 17 have a NOAA station within range

Weather stations 9 NOAA 1991–2020 normals, across 6,613 sq mi

Your ZIP code

Get the exact answer for your address

Everything above describes Otero 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 Otero County is closing

Nothing in the 32-crop table still has time to mature here. The first fall freeze normally arrives October 1 – November 18 across the 9 NOAA stations serving this county .

Your next season already has a date

The first job of it is 🧅 Green Onions, start indoors, around January 12 – March 23 — counted back from a last spring freeze of March 9 – May 18 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 9 stations agreeAt least one station

Every one of the 9 NOAA stations serving this county counts May 18 – October 1 as growing season (136 days). Widening to any single station gives March 9 – November 18 (254 days).

That is a 118-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

Otero County covers 4 hardiness zones. A guide that gives the county one zone has picked whichever is largest and rounded everyone else into it — fine for the 35% in zone 8a and wrong for the other 65%. Here is the actual split.

Zone	ZIP codes	Share
8a	6	35%
7a	5	29%
7b	5	29%
8b	1	6%

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 March 9 – May 18

First fall freeze October 1 – November 18

Across the 9 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 134–251 days depending which station you are nearest, as published by NOAA rather than computed from the dates above. Summer highs average 72.4–96.4 °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 4.1–12.8" across those 9 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 42% 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 93 °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
79837	7b	Dell City 5Ssw, TX	20.6 km
88081	8b	Orogrande, NM	25.9 km
88310	8a	White Sands Natl Mon, NM	13.7 km
88311	8a	Alamogordo, NM	12.2 km
88314	7b	Tularosa, NM	16.8 km
88317	7a	Cloudcroft, NM	10.5 km
88325	8a	Mtn Park, NM	11.3 km
88330	8a	White Sands Natl Mon, NM	12.0 km
88337	7b	Mtn Park, NM	7.5 km
88340	7a	Ruidoso, NM	22.5 km
88342	8a	Orogrande, NM	1.9 km
88344	7b	Elk, NM	46.7 km
88347	7a	Cloudcroft, NM	22.8 km
88349	7a	Mtn Park, NM	17.0 km
88350	7b	Cloudcroft, NM	38.6 km
88352	8a	Tularosa, NM	11.3 km
88354	7a	Elk, NM	24.5 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 9 of them, because no one station speaks for the county.

Crop	Job	When	Offset
🧅 Green Onions	Start indoors	January 12 – March 23	8 wk before
🌶️ Peppers	Start indoors	January 12 – March 23	8 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Collards	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Kale	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🫛 Peas	Direct sow	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Spinach	Direct sow	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🍠 Sweet Potato	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🍅 Tomatoes	Start indoors	January 26 – April 6	6 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Start indoors	February 2 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Start indoors	February 2 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Start indoors	February 2 – April 13	5 wk before
🥬 Arugula	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Baby Salad Greens	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🥕 Beets	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Mustard Greens	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🌶️ Okra	Start indoors	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🌱 Radishes	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🥔 Turnips	Direct sow	February 9 – April 20	4 wk before
🥬 Cabbage	Set out	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥕 Carrots	Direct sow	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Direct sow	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Collards	Set out	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥒 Cucumbers	Start indoors	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🧅 Green Onions	Set out	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Direct sow	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kale	Set out	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Direct sow	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Kohlrabi	Set out	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Direct sow	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Pumpkins	Start indoors	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Summer Squash	Start indoors	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🎃 Winter Squash	Start indoors	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥒 Zucchini	Start indoors	February 16 – April 27	3 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Direct sow	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Bok Choy	Set out	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🥦 Broccoli	Set out	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🌿 Cilantro	Direct sow	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Leaf Lettuce	Set out	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Direct sow	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🥬 Swiss Chard	Set out	February 23 – May 4	2 wk before
🌿 Dill	Direct sow	March 2 – May 11	1 wk before
🫘 Bush Beans	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Pumpkins	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Summer Squash	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🌽 Sweet Corn	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🍅 Tomatoes	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🎃 Winter Squash	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Direct sow	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Zucchini	Set out	March 16 – May 25	1 wk after
🥒 Cucumbers	Direct sow	March 23 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Direct sow	March 23 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Okra	Set out	March 23 – June 1	2 wk after
🌶️ Peppers	Set out	March 23 – June 1	2 wk after
🫘 Southern Peas	Direct sow	March 23 – June 1	2 wk after
🍠 Sweet Potato	Set out	March 23 – June 1	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 Otero County

Zone 7a carries 58 of 74 perennial edibles; zone 8b carries 54. 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 1 to be careful. Median March 9 – May 18 across 9 stations; February 18 is the optimistic end.
First fall freeze: Plan to September 18 to be careful. Median October 1 – November 18 across 9 stations; December 3 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 9 stations behind these numbers

All 9 NOAA stations whose normals this page quotes, spanning about 161 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
Alamogordo, NM	USC00290199	March 9	November 18	251 days
Cloudcroft, NM	USC00291931	May 18	October 1	134 days
Dell City 5Ssw, TX	USC00412354	April 17	October 25	189 days
Elk, NM	USC00292865	May 7	October 11	155 days
Mtn Park, NM	USC00295960	April 30	October 21	173 days
Orogrande, NM	USC00296435	March 24	November 7	225 days
Ruidoso, NM	USC00297649	May 11	October 5	147 days
Tularosa, NM	USC00299165	April 5	November 4	212 days
White Sands Natl Mon, NM	USC00299686	April 22	October 22	183 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 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

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 93 °F, at or above the 90 °F point where lettuce and spinach bolt and tomato pollen fails.
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.