Arbon Valley, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Arbon Valley, 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 Arbon Valley 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 Arbon Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arbon Valley — the short answer
Arbon Valley, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 22K 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 6a is Arbon Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arbon Valley's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arbon Valley
Each reading below is measured for Arbon Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArbon Valley runs about 159 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArbon Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Arbon Valley is in
Arbon Valley sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Arbon Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Power County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Arbon Valley
Every plant below cleared Arbon Valley's own zone 6a and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arbon Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Arbon Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arbon Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06S 33E 21ADB1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 06S 33E 15DCD1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- McNabb Grain & TransportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LARSON & ASSOCIATES INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ID ISU AIRCRAFT TECHNOLOGYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- US DOI BLM POCATELLO AIR TANKER BASEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- POCATELLO AIRTANKER BASEToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- 06S 33E 14DCD1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- PETERSEN INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- TESSENDERLO KERLEYToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- TESSENDERLO KERLEY INC MICHAUD PLANTBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 06S 33E 10DAD2Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arbon Valley'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 Arbon Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arbon Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arbon Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arbon Valley, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Arbon Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Arbon Valley
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 Arbon Valley average
Your land is one point inside Arbon Valley
Everything above resolves to Arbon Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 22K 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 Arbon Valley Average
Arbon Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Arbon Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Arbon Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Arbon Valley's scale: May 1 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arbon Valley's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arbon Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arbon Valley, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arbon Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arbon Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arbon Valley average
How we know this about Arbon Valley
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 Arbon Valley’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 Arbon Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Arbon Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arbon Valley typically lands around May 1, 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 May 22.
When is the first frost in Arbon Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arbon Valley typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arbon Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arbon Valley sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 23, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arbon Valley?
The federal record around Arbon Valley runs heavier than most — 447 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (250), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Arbon Valley?
From about Sep 7 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 Oct 7 (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 Oct 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arbon Valley's scale — its 6a band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arbon Valley'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 Arbon Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arbon Valley's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,686 acres it covers and 447 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arbon Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arbon Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 1 and Oct 7 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 447 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arbon Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arbon Valley's boundary and the 21,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Arbon Valley sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arbon Valley's 21,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Power County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Power County
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Power County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arbon Valley's 21,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arbon Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,686 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Arbon Valley-wide figureread your own land →