Kootenai, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, 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 Kootenai, 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 Kootenai 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 Kootenai — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kootenai — the short answer
Kootenai, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 355 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 355 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 Kootenai's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kootenai's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kootenai
Each reading below is measured for Kootenai itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKootenai runs about 176 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
MeasuredKootenai 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 Kootenai is in
Kootenai sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kootenai's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bonner County.
What Grows in Kootenai
Every plant below cleared Kootenai's own zone 6b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kootenai?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Kootenai
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kootenai. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VINSON TIMBER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SANDPOINT COMPUTER 8 & 9Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ANDERSONS AUTOBODY INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZSDPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SANDPOINT GAS SHED 1480-BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WASTE MANAGEMENT OF IDAHO - SANDPOINTBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #1810Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- ELKS GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- VAL GRIGGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PONDERAY PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CYGNUS INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2485Brownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kootenai'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 Kootenai.
Total Sites
175
within ~10 miles of Kootenai
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kootenai
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kootenai
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kootenai, Mining runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Kootenai. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Kootenai
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 Kootenai average
Your land is one point inside Kootenai
Everything above resolves to Kootenai as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 355 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 Kootenai Average
Kootenai Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Kootenai
- ●One soil character for all of Kootenai
- ●Frost dates read at Kootenai's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kootenai's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kootenai
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kootenai, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kootenai averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kootenai — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kootenai average
How we know this about Kootenai
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 Kootenai’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 Kootenai
When does frost risk typically end in Kootenai?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kootenai 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 Kootenai?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kootenai typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kootenai?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kootenai sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 29, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kootenai?
The federal record around Kootenai is a meaningful one — 175 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Kootenai?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kootenai's scale — its 6b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kootenai'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 Kootenai’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kootenai's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 355 acres it covers and 175 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kootenai's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kootenai's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 13 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 175 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kootenai, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kootenai's boundary and the 355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kootenai's own centroid, the Northern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kootenai's 355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bonner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bonner 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 Bonner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kootenai's 355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kootenai you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Kootenai-wide figureread your own land →
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