Ider, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Ider, 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 Ider 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 Ider — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ider — the short answer
Ider, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 7b is Ider's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ider's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ider
Each reading below is measured for Ider itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIder runs about 238 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredIder sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Ider is in
Ider sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ider's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Ider
Every plant below cleared Ider's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ider?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Ider
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ider. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IDER PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- IDER UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MUNFORD STEELUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IVEYS AUTO CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- IDER HIGHSCHOOL GYMNASIUM - 20446Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- IDER HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HEATH PRICHETTCAFO · 0.8 mi
- IDER CITGO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SHADY ACRESCAFO · 1.5 mi
- GALBREATH INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- GREG WHITAKERCAFO · 2.3 mi
- BREWER FARMSCAFO · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ider'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 Ider.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Ider
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ider
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ider
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ider, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 49 sites within ~10 miles of Ider. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Ider
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 Ider average
Your land is one point inside Ider
Everything above resolves to Ider as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. 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 Ider Average
Ider Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ider
- ●One soil character for all of Ider
- ●Frost dates read at Ider's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ider's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ider
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ider, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ider averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ider — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ider average
How we know this about Ider
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 Ider’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 Ider
When does frost risk typically end in Ider?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ider typically lands around Mar 19, 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 Apr 9.
When is the first frost in Ider?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ider typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ider?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ider sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 29, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ider?
The federal record around Ider is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Ider?
From about Oct 13 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 Nov 12 (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 Nov 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ider's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ider'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 Ider’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ider's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,475 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ider's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ider's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 12 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ider, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ider's boundary and the 3,475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ider's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ider's 3,475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ider's 3,475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ider you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,475 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ider-wide figureread your own land →
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