Kooskia, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Kooskia, 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 Kooskia 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 Kooskia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kooskia — the short answer
Kooskia, Idaho: USDA zone 7b, about 217 days between hard freezes, across 394 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~217
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 394 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 Kooskia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kooskia's 217-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kooskia
Each reading below is measured for Kooskia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKooskia runs about 217 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
MeasuredKooskia 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 Kooskia is in
Kooskia sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kooskia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Idaho County is mostly Idaho Batholith. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kooskia
Every plant below cleared Kooskia's own zone 7b and its 217-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kooskia?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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. 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 Kooskia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kooskia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- POWELL MTCE YARD #B22500Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SYRINGA CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MAGRUDER GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- USDA FOREST SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FENN RANGER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LOCHSA LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LOCHSA WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MEX MOUNTAIN WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SMITH CREEK WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- IDAHO COUNTY RD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BALD MOUNTAIN MTCE YARD #22300Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FLEMING MTCE YARD #2470 (B22400)Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kooskia'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 Kooskia.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Kooskia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kooskia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kooskia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kooskia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kooskia — Nitrate (36 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Kooskia
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 Kooskia average
Your land is one point inside Kooskia
Everything above resolves to Kooskia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 394 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 Kooskia Average
Kooskia Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Kooskia
- ●One soil character for all of Kooskia
- ●Frost dates read at Kooskia's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kooskia's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kooskia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kooskia, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kooskia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kooskia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kooskia average
How we know this about Kooskia
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 Kooskia’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 Kooskia
When does frost risk typically end in Kooskia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kooskia typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Kooskia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kooskia 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 217 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kooskia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kooskia sees about 217 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 18, about 182 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kooskia?
The federal record around Kooskia shows 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kooskia?
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 Kooskia's scale — its 7b band and its 217-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kooskia'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 Kooskia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kooskia's own scale — its own ~217-day season between 28°F freezes, the 394 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kooskia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kooskia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 1 and the ~217-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kooskia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kooskia's boundary and the 394 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~217-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kooskia 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 Kooskia's 394 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Idaho County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Idaho 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 Idaho County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kooskia's 394 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kooskia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 394 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kooskia-wide figureread your own land →
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