Malad City, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Malad City, 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 Malad City 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 Malad City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Malad City — the short answer
Malad City, Idaho: USDA zone 6a, about 165 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~165
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Malad City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Malad City's 165-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Malad City
Each reading below is measured for Malad City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMalad City 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
MeasuredMalad City 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 Malad City is in
Malad City sits in the Central Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Malad City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Oneida County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Malad City
Every plant below cleared Malad City'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 Malad City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Malad City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Malad City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTRAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- B E T MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MALAD WATER DEPT.Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HILL TOP SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NATIONAL PERLITE PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MALAD MTCE YARD - ITDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DALE F TUBBSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ONEIDA SCHOOL DISTRICT 35Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 14S 36E 22BCB1Nitrate · 1700 ft
- MALAD AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- US POSTAL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KC OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Malad City'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 Malad City.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Malad City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Malad City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Malad City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Malad City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Malad City — Nitrate (122 sites) and CAFO (3 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.
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 Malad City
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 Malad City average
Your land is one point inside Malad City
Everything above resolves to Malad City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Malad City Average
Malad City Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Malad City
- ●One soil character for all of Malad City
- ●Frost dates read at Malad City's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Malad City's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Malad City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Malad City, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Malad City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Malad City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Malad City average
How we know this about Malad City
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 Malad City’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 Malad City
When does frost risk typically end in Malad City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Malad City typically lands around Apr 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 May 20.
When is the first frost in Malad City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Malad City typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 165 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Malad City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Malad City sees about 165 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 27, about 130 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Malad City?
The federal record around Malad City shows 147 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Malad City?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Malad City's scale — its 6a band and its 165-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Malad City'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 Malad City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Malad City's own scale — its own ~165-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,081 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Malad City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Malad City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 11 and the ~165-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Malad City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Malad City's boundary and the 1,081 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~165-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Malad City sits in the Central Basin and Range — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Malad City's 1,081 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Oneida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Oneida 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 Oneida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Malad City's 1,081 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Malad City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,081 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 Malad City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Idaho
Wider growing context
What grows across IdahoMalad City sits outside our named growing regions, so Idaho as a whole is its closest context here.