Minidoka County, in Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Minidoka County lies within the Magic Valley and the Snake River Plain — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Minidoka County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Minidoka 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 Minidoka County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Minidoka County — the short answer
Minidoka County, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 485K acres.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 485K 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 6a is Minidoka County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minidoka County's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Minidoka County
Across a year, Minidoka County accumulates about 1,995 growing degree days above 50°F, about 504 more than the middle Idaho county — ahead of 34 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 Minidoka County
Across Minidoka County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Portneuf, Minveno, and Sluka are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Minidoka County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Minidoka County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 6% somewhat poorly drained, 3% somewhat excessively drained.
Portneuf is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Minveno (9%) and Sluka (9%).
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 Minidoka County
Each reading below is measured for Minidoka 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 Minidoka 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 Minidoka County runs about pH 7.0–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMinidoka County runs about 162 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
MeasuredMinidoka County 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 Minidoka County is in
Minidoka County sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Minidoka County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Minidoka County's own USDA zone 6a and its own 162-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 Minidoka County?
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 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 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What gets applied to farmland in Minidoka County
USGS estimates 153,003 lb of Glyphosate on Minidoka County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Chlorpyrifos (30,301 lb) and Dimethenamid-p (17,319 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 Minidoka County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Minidoka County — 483 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Minidoka County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Minidoka County
Closest first, across Minidoka County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 06S 24E 31CDA1Nitrate · 2300 ft
- 06S 24E 33CCD1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 07S 24E 05DDA1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- DESERT VIEW FARMS INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 07S 24E 01DDB2Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 06S 24E 35CAC1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 07S 24E 22BCA1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 07S 24E 13ADC1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 06S 24E 35DDB1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 07S 24E 22DBB1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 06S 24E 35DAC1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 07S 24E 18DAC1Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minidoka 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 Minidoka County.
Total Sites
483
across Minidoka County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Minidoka County
Severity Distribution
across Minidoka County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minidoka County, two things run higher than the national average across Minidoka County — Nitrate (346 sites) and CAFO (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Minidoka 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 Minidoka County average
Your land is one point inside Minidoka County
Everything above resolves to Minidoka County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 485K 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 Minidoka County Average
Minidoka County Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Minidoka County
- ●One soil character for all of Minidoka County
- ●Frost dates read at Minidoka County's scale: May 1 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minidoka County's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Minidoka County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minidoka County, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minidoka County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minidoka County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minidoka County average
How we know this about Minidoka 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 Minidoka County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Minidoka County
When does frost risk typically end in Minidoka County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minidoka County 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.
How long is the growing season in Minidoka County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minidoka County sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 26, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minidoka County?
The federal record around Minidoka County is a meaningful one — 483 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (346), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Minidoka County's scale — its 6a band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minidoka 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 Minidoka County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Minidoka County's own scale — its own ~162-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 483 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minidoka County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minidoka County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Minidoka CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 483 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Minidoka County's boundary and the 484,625 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Minidoka County sitting wholly inside the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Minidoka 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 Minidoka County — the ~162 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 Minidoka County's 484,625 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 483 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 Minidoka Countyread your own land →