Kamiah, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kamiah, 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 Kamiah 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 Kamiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kamiah — the short answer
Kamiah, Idaho: USDA zone 7b, about 215 days between hard freezes, across 703 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~215
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 703 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 7b is Kamiah's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kamiah's 215-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kamiah
Each reading below is measured for Kamiah itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKamiah runs about 215 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
MeasuredKamiah sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Kamiah is in
Kamiah sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kamiah's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lewis County is mostly Columbia Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kamiah
Every plant below cleared Kamiah's own zone 7b and its 215-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kamiah?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Kamiah
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kamiah. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EMPIRE LUMBER KAMIAH MILLSToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- JACKSONS BUY SELL TRADE INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 34N 03E 36CBCB1Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- BLUE NORTH FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- 33N 04E 07CDC1Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SIMMONS SANITATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- 33N 03E 07DAD1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- Lolo MineMining · 5.0 mi
- 33N 04E 14BAD1Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- Pittsburg GroupMining · 6.0 mi
- Idaho Transportation DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- POWELL MTCE YARD #B22500Underground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kamiah'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 Kamiah.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Kamiah
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kamiah
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kamiah
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kamiah, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kamiah — Nitrate (38 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kamiah
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 Kamiah average
Your land is one point inside Kamiah
Everything above resolves to Kamiah as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 703 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 Kamiah Average
Kamiah Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kamiah
- ●One soil character for all of Kamiah
- ●Frost dates read at Kamiah's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kamiah's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kamiah
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kamiah, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kamiah averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kamiah — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kamiah average
How we know this about Kamiah
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 Kamiah’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 Kamiah
When does frost risk typically end in Kamiah?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kamiah typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Kamiah?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kamiah typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 215 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kamiah?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kamiah sees about 215 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 18, about 180 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kamiah?
The federal record around Kamiah shows 63 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (38), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 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 Kamiah?
From about Oct 2 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kamiah's scale — its 7b band and its 215-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kamiah'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 Kamiah’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kamiah's own scale — its own ~215-day season between 28°F freezes, the 703 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kamiah's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kamiah's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 1 and the ~215-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kamiah, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kamiah's boundary and the 703 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~215-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kamiah sits in the Northern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kamiah's 703 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kamiah's 703 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kamiah you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 703 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 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 Kamiah-wide figureread your own land →
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