Onaway, 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.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Onaway, 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 Onaway 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 Onaway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Onaway — the short answer
Onaway, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 96 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 96 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 Onaway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Onaway's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Onaway
Each reading below is measured for Onaway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOnaway runs about 177 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
MeasuredOnaway 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 Onaway is in
Onaway sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Onaway's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Latah County is mostly Northern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Onaway
Every plant below cleared Onaway's own zone 6b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Onaway?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Onaway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Onaway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 41N 04W 06BAC1Nitrate · 300 ft
- PECK'S THRIFTY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- LESTER JONES SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RANDALL BUTTE RADIO TWR & BLG (1291-BO1)Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- POTLATCH COMPUTER #10Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- BRABB FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- POTLATCH SCHOOL DIST #285Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- POTLATCH CENTRAL OFFICE (1290-BO2)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUSCH DISTRIBUTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Four Star Supply Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANDERSON PRODUCERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- NORTH LATAH COUNTY HIGHWAY DIST (3)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Onaway'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 Onaway.
Total Sites
63
within ~10 miles of Onaway
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Onaway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Onaway
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Onaway, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Onaway — Mining (6 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Onaway
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 Onaway average
Your land is one point inside Onaway
Everything above resolves to Onaway as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 96 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 Onaway Average
Onaway Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Onaway
- ●One soil character for all of Onaway
- ●Frost dates read at Onaway's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Onaway's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Onaway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Onaway, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Onaway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Onaway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Onaway average
How we know this about Onaway
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 Onaway’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 Onaway
When does frost risk typically end in Onaway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Onaway typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Onaway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Onaway typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Onaway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Onaway sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 1, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Onaway?
The federal record around Onaway shows 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Onaway?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Onaway's scale — its 6b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Onaway'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 Onaway’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Onaway's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 96 acres it covers and 63 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Onaway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Onaway's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 15 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 63 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Onaway, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Onaway's boundary and the 96 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Onaway sits in the Columbia Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Onaway's 96 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Latah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Latah 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 Latah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Onaway's 96 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Onaway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 96 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Onaway-wide figureread your own land →
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