Filer, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Filer, 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 Filer 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 Filer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Filer — the short answer
Filer, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 940 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 940 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 Filer's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Filer's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Filer
Each reading below is measured for Filer itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFiler runs about 196 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
MeasuredFiler 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 Filer is in
Filer sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Filer's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Twin Falls County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Filer
Every plant below cleared Filer's own zone 7a and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Filer?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Filer
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Filer. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Oasis Stop N Go #25Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- SUPER QUIK (1)Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Filer Super ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EMMETT HARRISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RAY MOOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FILER MUTUAL TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CENTRAL AUTO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FILER HIGHWAY DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- NOFFSINGER MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ACME MANUFACTURING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BEAN GROWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MONSANTO VEGETABLE SEEDSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Filer'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 Filer.
Total Sites
569
within ~10 miles of Filer
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Filer
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Filer
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Filer, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Filer — CAFO (26 sites) and Nitrate (182 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Filer
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 Filer average
Your land is one point inside Filer
Everything above resolves to Filer as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 940 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 Filer Average
Filer Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Filer
- ●One soil character for all of Filer
- ●Frost dates read at Filer's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Filer's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Filer
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Filer, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Filer averages can't show:
We read public map data around Filer — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Filer average
How we know this about Filer
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 Filer’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 Filer
When does frost risk typically end in Filer?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Filer typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Filer?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Filer typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Filer?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Filer sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 12, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Filer?
The federal record around Filer is a meaningful one — 569 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (282), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Filer?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Filer's scale — its 7a band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Filer'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 Filer’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Filer's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 940 acres it covers and 569 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Filer's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Filer's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 26 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 569 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Filer, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Filer's boundary and the 940 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Filer 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 Filer's 940 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Twin Falls County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Filer's 940 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Filer you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 940 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Filer-wide figureread your own land →
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