Gooding, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gooding, 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 Gooding 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 Gooding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gooding — the short answer
Gooding, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 972 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 972 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 6b is Gooding's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gooding's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gooding
Each reading below is measured for Gooding itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGooding runs about 188 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
MeasuredGooding sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Gooding is in
Gooding sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Gooding's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gooding County.
What Grows in Gooding
Every plant below cleared Gooding's own zone 6b and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gooding?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Gooding
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gooding. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Union Pacific RR GOODING MP337Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- GOODING COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STEVE'S QUICK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- COOK'S FOOD TOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GOODING SEED CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THE WALKER CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Gooding City Fire DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JOSE M ELEXPURUUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GOODING CAR CARE/DEANS REPAIR SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GEM VETERINARY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- IDAHO SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND THE BLINDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GOODING HWY DIST 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gooding'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 Gooding.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Gooding
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gooding
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gooding
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gooding, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gooding — CAFO (7 sites) and Nitrate (54 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 Gooding
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 Gooding average
Your land is one point inside Gooding
Everything above resolves to Gooding as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 972 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 Gooding Average
Gooding Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Gooding
- ●One soil character for all of Gooding
- ●Frost dates read at Gooding's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gooding's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gooding
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gooding, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gooding averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gooding — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gooding average
How we know this about Gooding
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 Gooding’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 Gooding
When does frost risk typically end in Gooding?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gooding typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Gooding?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gooding typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gooding?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gooding sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 11, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gooding?
The federal record around Gooding shows 97 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Gooding?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gooding's scale — its 6b band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gooding'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 Gooding’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gooding's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 972 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gooding's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gooding's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 25 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gooding, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gooding's boundary and the 972 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gooding's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gooding's 972 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gooding County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gooding 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 Gooding County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gooding's 972 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gooding you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 972 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 Gooding-wide figureread your own land →