Camas County, in Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Camas County lies within the Magic Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Camas County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Camas County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Camas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Camas County — the short answer
Camas County, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 123 days between hard freezes, across 688K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~123
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 688K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 6b is Camas County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camas County's 123-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Camas County
Across a year, Camas County accumulates about 958 growing degree days above 50°F, about 533 fewer than the middle Idaho county — ahead of 3 of Idaho’s 44 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Camas County
Across Camas County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Simonton, Roanhide, and Gaib are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Camas County
The USDA soil survey maps 76% of Camas County as well drained — but another 22% drains differently: 8% somewhat poorly drained, 8% moderately well drained.
Simonton is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Roanhide (11%) and Gaib (10%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Camas County
Each reading below is measured for Camas County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Camas County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Camas County runs about pH 6.2–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCamas County runs about 123 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
MeasuredCamas County sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Camas County is in
Camas County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Idaho Batholith (60%) and Snake River Plain (40%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Camas County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Camas County's own USDA zone 6b and its own 123-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile.
Is it too late to plant in Camas County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
Documented around Camas County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Camas County
USGS estimates 20,561 lb of Glyphosate on Camas County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,679 lb) and Metribuzin (4,557 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Camas County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Camas County — 127 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 67 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
Camas County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Camas County
Closest first, across Camas County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Perseverance MineMining · 2.6 mi
- Unnamed LocationMining · 3.3 mi
- Richard Allen MineMining · 3.4 mi
- Wild West MineMining · 4.1 mi
- Mccarter MineMining · 4.5 mi
- SOLDIER MOUNTAIN SKI AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Unnamed Silver-Lead MineMining · 4.6 mi
- Grampis MineMining · 5.0 mi
- Climax MineMining · 5.1 mi
- Fourth of July MineMining · 5.2 mi
- 01N 14E 16ADD1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- Turner MineMining · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camas County'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 Camas County.
Sources Checked
across Camas County
Severity Distribution
across Camas County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camas County, two things run higher than the national average across Camas County — Mining (67 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Camas County
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 Camas County average
Your land is one point inside Camas County
Everything above resolves to Camas County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 688K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Camas County Average
Camas County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Camas County
- ●One soil character for all of Camas County
- ●Frost dates read at Camas County's scale: May 31 to Oct 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camas County's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Camas County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camas County, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camas County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camas County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camas County average
How we know this about Camas County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Camas County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Camas County
When does frost risk typically end in Camas County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camas County typically lands around May 31, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Camas County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camas County sees about 123 frost-free days — roughly May 31 through Oct 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 21 to Sep 17, about 88 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camas County?
The federal record around Camas County runs heavier than most — 127 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (67), the nearest Mining record about 2.6 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 gardeners stretch the season in Camas County?
With about 123 frost-free days between hard freezes, Camas County 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 151 to 179 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 31 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Camas County's scale — its 6b band and its 123-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camas County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Idaho's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Camas County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Camas County's own scale — its own ~123-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 127 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camas County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camas County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~123-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Camas CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 127 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 2.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Camas County's boundary and the 687,509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~123-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Camas County spans, Idaho Batholith the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Camas County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Camas County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Idaho grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Idaho
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Camas County — the ~123 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camas County's 687,509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 127 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Camas Countyread your own land →