Murtaugh, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Murtaugh, 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 Murtaugh 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 Murtaugh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Murtaugh — the short answer
Murtaugh, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 144 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 144 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 Murtaugh's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Murtaugh's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Murtaugh
Each reading below is measured for Murtaugh itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMurtaugh runs about 182 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
MeasuredMurtaugh 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 Murtaugh is in
Murtaugh sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Murtaugh's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Twin Falls County is mostly Northern Basin and Range. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Murtaugh
Every plant below cleared Murtaugh's own zone 6b and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Murtaugh?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Murtaugh
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Murtaugh. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOAGIE STREET COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- VALLEY BEAN & GRAIN COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- RICE'S AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- A.E. STALEY MANUFACTURINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MIKE KLEINKOPFUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MURTAUGH SECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- TESORO LOGISTICS MURTAUGH STATIONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- NEIL'S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WATTS FARMS INC/ K & J FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TWIN FALLS COUNTY 5Superfund · 1.1 mi
- BARB'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 11S 19E 12DDC1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Murtaugh'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 Murtaugh.
Total Sites
255
within ~10 miles of Murtaugh
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Murtaugh
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Murtaugh
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Murtaugh, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Murtaugh — Nitrate (188 sites) and CAFO (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.
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 Murtaugh
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 Murtaugh average
Your land is one point inside Murtaugh
Everything above resolves to Murtaugh as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 144 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 Murtaugh Average
Murtaugh Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Murtaugh
- ●One soil character for all of Murtaugh
- ●Frost dates read at Murtaugh's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Murtaugh's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Murtaugh
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Murtaugh, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Murtaugh averages can't show:
We read public map data around Murtaugh — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Murtaugh average
How we know this about Murtaugh
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 Murtaugh’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 Murtaugh
When does frost risk typically end in Murtaugh?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Murtaugh 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 Murtaugh?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Murtaugh typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Murtaugh?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Murtaugh sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 5, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Murtaugh?
The federal record around Murtaugh is a meaningful one — 255 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (188), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Murtaugh?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Murtaugh's scale — its 6b band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Murtaugh'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 Murtaugh’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Murtaugh's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 144 acres it covers and 255 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Murtaugh's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Murtaugh's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 19 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 255 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Murtaugh, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Murtaugh's boundary and the 144 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Murtaugh sits in the Snake River Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Murtaugh's 144 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Twin Falls County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Murtaugh's 144 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Murtaugh you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 144 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Murtaugh-wide figureread your own land →
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