Genesee, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Genesee, 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 Genesee 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 Genesee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Genesee — the short answer
Genesee, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 393 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 393 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 Genesee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Genesee's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Genesee
Each reading below is measured for Genesee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGenesee runs about 205 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
MeasuredGenesee 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 Genesee is in
Genesee sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Genesee's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Latah County is mostly Northern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Genesee
Every plant below cleared Genesee's own zone 7a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Genesee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Genesee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Genesee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRY DRUFFELUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- BUSCH FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- WAYNE SCHWENNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 50 ft
- CITY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GENESEE CENTRAL OFFICE 11Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GENESEE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Genesee Union Warehouse Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HAXTON FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 37N 05W 24AAA1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 37N 05W 12ABC1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- THORVALD GILJEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Genesee'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 Genesee.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Genesee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Genesee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Genesee
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Genesee
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 Genesee average
Your land is one point inside Genesee
Everything above resolves to Genesee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 393 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 Genesee Average
Genesee Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Genesee
- ●One soil character for all of Genesee
- ●Frost dates read at Genesee's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Genesee's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Genesee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Genesee, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Genesee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Genesee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Genesee average
How we know this about Genesee
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 Genesee’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 Genesee
When does frost risk typically end in Genesee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Genesee typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Genesee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Genesee typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Genesee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Genesee sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Genesee?
The federal record around Genesee shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Genesee?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Genesee's scale — its 7a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Genesee'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 Genesee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Genesee's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 393 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Genesee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Genesee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Genesee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Genesee's boundary and the 393 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Genesee 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 Genesee's 393 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Latah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Latah 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 Latah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Genesee's 393 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Genesee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 393 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Genesee-wide figureread your own land →
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