Inkom, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Inkom, 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 Inkom 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 Inkom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Inkom — the short answer
Inkom, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 612 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 612 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 Inkom's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Inkom's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Inkom
Each reading below is measured for Inkom itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredInkom runs about 165 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
MeasuredInkom 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 Inkom is in
Inkom sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Inkom's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bannock County.
What Grows in Inkom
Every plant below cleared Inkom's own zone 6a and its 165-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Inkom?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Inkom
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Inkom. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INKOM COMMUNITY BIBLE CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 07S 36E 21DCB1Nitrate · 1200 ft
- LESTER SKEEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- VILLAGE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MELVIN F SOLOMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ASH GROVE CEMENTToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- ASH GROVE CEMENTBrownfields · 1900 ft
- ASH GROVE CEMENT COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 07S 36E 21DCC1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- INKOM RSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- INKOM STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 07S 36E 19ACD1Nitrate · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Inkom'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 Inkom.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Inkom
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Inkom
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Inkom
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Inkom, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Inkom — Mining (14 sites) and Nitrate (46 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Inkom
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 Inkom average
Your land is one point inside Inkom
Everything above resolves to Inkom as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 612 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 Inkom Average
Inkom Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Inkom
- ●One soil character for all of Inkom
- ●Frost dates read at Inkom's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Inkom's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Inkom
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Inkom, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Inkom averages can't show:
We read public map data around Inkom — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Inkom average
How we know this about Inkom
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 Inkom’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 Inkom
When does frost risk typically end in Inkom?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Inkom typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Inkom?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Inkom typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Inkom?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Inkom sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 28, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Inkom?
The federal record around Inkom is a meaningful one — 107 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (46), 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 Inkom?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Inkom's scale — its 6a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Inkom'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 Inkom’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Inkom's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 612 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Inkom's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Inkom's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 12 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Inkom, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Inkom's boundary and the 612 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Inkom's own centroid, the Northern Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Inkom's 612 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bannock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bannock 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 Bannock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Inkom's 612 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Inkom you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 612 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 Inkom-wide figureread your own land →