Emmett, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Emmett, 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 Emmett 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 Emmett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Emmett — the short answer
Emmett, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 7a is Emmett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Emmett's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Emmett
Each reading below is measured for Emmett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEmmett runs about 203 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEmmett sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Emmett is in
Emmett sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Emmett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gem County.
What Grows in Emmett
Every plant below cleared Emmett's own zone 7a and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Emmett?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Emmett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Emmett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER GOODMAN OIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- QUL RCAG SQUAW BUTTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HIGH VALLEY RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- AT&T Communications EmmettUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SAGEHEN CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EMMETT MTCE YARD #3150Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BY-RITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CLASSI CHASSI EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- JACKSONS FOOD STORE #753Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- STINKER STATION #76Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- YUNKER GLASS & SCREENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MCLAREN'S MAIN STREET AUT0Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Emmett'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 Emmett.
Total Sites
234
within ~10 miles of Emmett
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Emmett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Emmett
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Emmett, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Emmett — PFAS (5 sites) and Nitrate (142 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Emmett
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 Emmett average
Your land is one point inside Emmett
Everything above resolves to Emmett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Emmett Average
Emmett Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Emmett
- ●One soil character for all of Emmett
- ●Frost dates read at Emmett's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Emmett's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Emmett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Emmett, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Emmett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Emmett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Emmett average
How we know this about Emmett
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 Emmett’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 Emmett
When does frost risk typically end in Emmett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Emmett typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Emmett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Emmett typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Emmett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Emmett sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 16, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Emmett?
The federal record around Emmett runs heavier than most — 234 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (142), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Emmett?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Emmett's scale — its 7a band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Emmett'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 Emmett’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Emmett's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,864 acres it covers and 234 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Emmett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Emmett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 30 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 234 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Emmett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Emmett's boundary and the 1,864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Emmett's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Emmett's 1,864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gem County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gem 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 Gem County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Emmett's 1,864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Emmett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Emmett-wide figureread your own land →