Fruitland, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fruitland, 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 Fruitland 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 Fruitland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fruitland — the short answer
Fruitland, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- 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 Fruitland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fruitland's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fruitland
Each reading below is measured for Fruitland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFruitland runs about 206 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
MeasuredFruitland 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 Fruitland is in
Fruitland sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Fruitland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Payette County.
What Grows in Fruitland
Every plant below cleared Fruitland's own zone 7a and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fruitland?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Fruitland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fruitland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWIRE COCA-COLA USAToxics Release Inventory · 800 ft
- Maverik Country Store #425Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTAL/ SOUTH WEST CANNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Fruitland ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JACKSONS FOOD STORE #754Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- IDAHO BEEF & BEVERAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WOODGRAIN MIILWORKBrownfields · 2600 ft
- WOODGRAIN MIILWORKToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- DOYLE'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HWY DIST 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STINKER STORE #43Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ST LUKE'S FRUITLAND MEDICAL PLAZABrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fruitland'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 Fruitland.
Total Sites
404
within ~10 miles of Fruitland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fruitland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fruitland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fruitland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fruitland — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (188 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Fruitland
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 Fruitland average
Your land is one point inside Fruitland
Everything above resolves to Fruitland 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 Fruitland Average
Fruitland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Fruitland
- ●One soil character for all of Fruitland
- ●Frost dates read at Fruitland's scale: Apr 4 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fruitland's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fruitland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fruitland, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fruitland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fruitland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fruitland average
How we know this about Fruitland
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 Fruitland’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 Fruitland
When does frost risk typically end in Fruitland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fruitland typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Fruitland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fruitland typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fruitland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fruitland sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 13, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fruitland?
The federal record around Fruitland is a meaningful one — 404 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (188), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 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 Fruitland?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fruitland's scale — its 7a band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fruitland'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 Fruitland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fruitland's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,735 acres it covers and 404 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fruitland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fruitland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Oct 27 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 404 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fruitland, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fruitland's boundary and the 1,735 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fruitland's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fruitland's 1,735 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Payette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Payette 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 Payette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fruitland's 1,735 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fruitland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,735 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Fruitland-wide figureread your own land →
More in Idaho
Growing region
Nearby growing guides