Chubbuck, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Chubbuck, 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 Chubbuck 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 Chubbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Chubbuck — the short answer
Chubbuck, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Chubbuck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chubbuck's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chubbuck
Each reading below is measured for Chubbuck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChubbuck runs about 161 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
MeasuredChubbuck 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 Chubbuck is in
Chubbuck sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Chubbuck's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bannock County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Chubbuck
Every plant below cleared Chubbuck's own zone 6a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chubbuck?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Chubbuck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chubbuck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IDAHO HYDRAULICS INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- CHUBBUCK GROUNDWATER CONTAMINATION SITESuperfund · 1800 ft
- CITY OF CHUBBUCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JACKSONS FOOD STORE #69Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROBERT R ANDERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TRUGREEN CHUBBUCKBrownfields · 2500 ft
- M & M INVESTMENTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- INTERMOUNTAIN MILK PRODUCERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WAYNES TRANSMISSION INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SMITH'S #061Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SMITH'S FUEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- John R. ValentyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chubbuck'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 Chubbuck.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chubbuck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chubbuck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chubbuck, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Chubbuck. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Chubbuck
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 Chubbuck average
Your land is one point inside Chubbuck
Everything above resolves to Chubbuck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Chubbuck Average
Chubbuck Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Chubbuck
- ●One soil character for all of Chubbuck
- ●Frost dates read at Chubbuck's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chubbuck's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chubbuck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chubbuck, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chubbuck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chubbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chubbuck average
How we know this about Chubbuck
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 Chubbuck’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 Chubbuck
When does frost risk typically end in Chubbuck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chubbuck typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Chubbuck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chubbuck typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chubbuck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chubbuck sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chubbuck?
The federal record around Chubbuck runs heavier than most — 473 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (253), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Chubbuck?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chubbuck's scale — its 6a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chubbuck'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 Chubbuck’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chubbuck's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,506 acres it covers and 473 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chubbuck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chubbuck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 8 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 473 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chubbuck, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chubbuck's boundary and the 4,506 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Chubbuck 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 Chubbuck's 4,506 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bannock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bannock 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 Bannock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chubbuck's 4,506 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chubbuck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,506 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Chubbuck-wide figureread your own land →