Kuna, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kuna, 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 Kuna 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 Kuna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kuna — the short answer
Kuna, Idaho: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 17K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 17K 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 7a is Kuna's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kuna's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kuna
Each reading below is measured for Kuna itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKuna runs about 207 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
MeasuredKuna sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Kuna is in
Kuna sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Kuna's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ada County.
What Grows in Kuna
Every plant below cleared Kuna's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kuna?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 Kuna
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kuna. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02N 01W 12CDD1Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 02N 01W 12BAA1-DESTROYEDNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 02N 01E 07CBBC1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 02N 01W 13BAB1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 02N 01W 11ADA1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 02N 01W 11ABD1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 02N 01W 01ABD1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 02N 01E 07AAB1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- KJ's KunaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Jacksons Food Store #160Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 02N 01W 24BBA1Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 02N 01E 05CBDC1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kuna'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 Kuna.
Total Sites
1,783
within ~10 miles of Kuna
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kuna
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kuna
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kuna, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kuna — Nitrate (996 sites) and CAFO (17 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Kuna
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 Kuna average
Your land is one point inside Kuna
Everything above resolves to Kuna as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 17K 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 Kuna Average
Kuna Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kuna
- ●One soil character for all of Kuna
- ●Frost dates read at Kuna's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kuna's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kuna
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kuna, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kuna averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kuna — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kuna average
How we know this about Kuna
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 Kuna’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 Kuna
When does frost risk typically end in Kuna?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kuna typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Kuna?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kuna typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kuna?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kuna sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 17, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kuna?
The federal record around Kuna is a meaningful one — 1,783 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (996), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Kuna?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kuna's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kuna'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 Kuna’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kuna's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,620 acres it covers and 1,783 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kuna's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kuna's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 31 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,783 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kuna, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kuna's boundary and the 16,620 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kuna's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kuna's 16,620 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ada County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ada 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 Ada County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kuna's 16,620 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kuna you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,620 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Kuna-wide figureread your own land →