McCall, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — 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 pumpkin, cranberry, lavender, and zucchini; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McCall, 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 McCall 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 McCall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCall — the short answer
McCall, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 107 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~107
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 5a is McCall's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCall's 107-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCall
Each reading below is measured for McCall itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCall runs about 107 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMcCall sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 McCall is in
McCall sits in the Idaho Batholith — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at McCall's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valley County.
What Grows in McCall
Every plant below cleared McCall's own zone 5a and its 107-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCall?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near McCall
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCall. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST LUKE'S MCCALLBrownfields · 750 ft
- SHORE LODGE PUMP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- McCALL HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MC CALL FISH HATCHERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MCCALL SUPERVISOR'S OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KEN'S LAKEVIEW MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MCCALL DONNELLY HIGHSCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STEIN DISTRIBUTING (McCALL)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CENTURY 21 BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ROWLAND BROTHERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ALBERTSONS 3360Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- DAVE FOSTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McCall'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 McCall.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of McCall
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McCall
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCall
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McCall, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McCall — Nitrate (30 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (65 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in McCall
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 McCall average
Your land is one point inside McCall
Everything above resolves to McCall as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 McCall Average
McCall Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across McCall
- ●One soil character for all of McCall
- ●Frost dates read at McCall's scale: May 29 to Sep 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCall's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCall
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCall, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCall averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCall — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCall average
How we know this about McCall
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 McCall’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 McCall
When does frost risk typically end in McCall?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCall typically lands around May 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 Jun 19.
When is the first frost in McCall?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCall typically arrives around Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 30, so the watching starts about Aug 14 — about 107 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCall?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCall sees about 107 frost-free days — roughly May 29 through Sep 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 19 to Aug 30, about 72 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCall?
The federal record around McCall shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in McCall?
With about 107 frost-free days between hard freezes, McCall rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 135 to 163 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 29 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at McCall's scale — its 5a band and its 107-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCall'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 McCall’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McCall's own scale — its own ~107-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,801 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCall's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCall's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 29 and Sep 13 and the ~107-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCall, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCall's boundary and the 5,801 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~107-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCall's own centroid, the Idaho BatholithUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCall's 5,801 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Valley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Valley 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 Valley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCall's 5,801 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCall you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,801 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 McCall-wide figureread your own land →
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