Ferdinand, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ferdinand, 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 Ferdinand 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 Ferdinand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ferdinand — the short answer
Ferdinand, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 112 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 112 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 Ferdinand's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ferdinand's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ferdinand
Each reading below is measured for Ferdinand itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFerdinand runs about 158 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
MeasuredFerdinand 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 Ferdinand is in
Ferdinand sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ferdinand's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Idaho County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ferdinand
Every plant below cleared Ferdinand's own zone 6a and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ferdinand?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Ferdinand
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ferdinand. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 33N 01W 36DAD1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 33N 01W 27DBC1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- Cottonwood ButteMining · 3.5 mi
- Henderson FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 32N 01E 20CDC1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 33N 01W 29BDD1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- 33N 01W 09DCC1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- RCAG QWD/FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- MERRILL, WALTERCAFO · 6.2 mi
- 34N 01W 34DAD1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 32N 01W 19DBC1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 33N 01E 12CAC1Nitrate · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ferdinand'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 Ferdinand.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ferdinand
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ferdinand
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ferdinand, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Ferdinand. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ferdinand
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 Ferdinand average
Your land is one point inside Ferdinand
Everything above resolves to Ferdinand as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 112 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 Ferdinand Average
Ferdinand Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Ferdinand
- ●One soil character for all of Ferdinand
- ●Frost dates read at Ferdinand's scale: May 2 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ferdinand's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ferdinand
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ferdinand, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ferdinand averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ferdinand — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ferdinand average
How we know this about Ferdinand
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 Ferdinand’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 Ferdinand
When does frost risk typically end in Ferdinand?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ferdinand typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Ferdinand?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ferdinand typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ferdinand?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ferdinand sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 23, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ferdinand?
The federal record around Ferdinand shows 54 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), 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 I protect my plants from frost in Ferdinand?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ferdinand's scale — its 6a band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ferdinand'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 Ferdinand’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ferdinand's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 112 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ferdinand's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ferdinand's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 7 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ferdinand, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ferdinand's boundary and the 112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ferdinand sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ferdinand's 112 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Idaho County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Idaho 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 Idaho County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ferdinand's 112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ferdinand you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 112 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 Ferdinand-wide figureread your own land →
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