Butte City, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Butte City, 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 Butte City 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 Butte City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Butte City — the short answer
Butte City, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 134 days between hard freezes, across 108 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~134
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 108 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 5a is Butte City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Butte City's 134-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Butte City
Each reading below is measured for Butte City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredButte City runs about 134 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredButte City sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Butte City is in
Butte City sits in the Middle Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Butte City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butte County.
What Grows in Butte City
Every plant below cleared Butte City's own zone 5a and its 134-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Butte City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Butte City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Butte City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 03N 27E 09AAA1Nitrate · 900 ft
- 03N 27E 09ABB1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- 03N 27E 09BAA1Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 03N 27E 10BAB2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 03N 27E 06ADB1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 03N 27E 18ACC3Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 03N 27E 06BAA1Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 04N 27E 31CDC1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- ARCO CHEVRON/VALLEY INSURANCE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- BUS MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- ARCO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- EAST BUTTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Butte City'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 Butte City.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Butte City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
52 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Butte City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Butte City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Butte City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Butte City
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 Butte City average
Your land is one point inside Butte City
Everything above resolves to Butte City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 108 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 city 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 Butte City Average
Butte City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Butte City
- ●One soil character for all of Butte City
- ●Frost dates read at Butte City's scale: May 16 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Butte City's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Butte City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Butte City, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Butte City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Butte City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Butte City average
How we know this about Butte City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Butte City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Butte City
When does frost risk typically end in Butte City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Butte City typically lands around May 16, 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 Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Butte City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Butte City typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 134 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Butte City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Butte City sees about 134 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 13, about 99 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Butte City?
The federal record around Butte City shows 74 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Butte City?
With about 134 frost-free days between hard freezes, Butte City rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 162 to 190 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Butte City's scale — its 5a band and its 134-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Butte City'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 Butte City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Butte City's own scale — its own ~134-day season between 28°F freezes, the 108 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Butte City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Butte City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Sep 27 and the ~134-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Butte City, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Butte City's boundary and the 108 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~134-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Butte City's own centroid, the Middle RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Butte City's 108 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butte County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butte 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 Butte County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Butte City's 108 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Butte City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 108 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Butte City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Idaho
Wider growing context
What grows across IdahoButte City sits outside our named growing regions, so Idaho as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides