Reubens, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Reubens, 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 Reubens 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 Reubens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Reubens — the short answer
Reubens, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 108 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 108 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 Reubens's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reubens's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reubens
Each reading below is measured for Reubens itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredReubens runs about 167 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
MeasuredReubens 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 Reubens is in
Reubens sits in the Northern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Reubens's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lewis County is mostly Columbia Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Reubens
Every plant below cleared Reubens's own zone 6b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reubens?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Reubens
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reubens. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 34N 02W 10ACA1Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- WESTERN FARM SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 35N 02W 25BBA1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 34N 01W 18DDD1Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 34N 02W 22BCC1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 35N 01W 19AADC1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- 35N 01W 08DAA1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 34N 02W 33BCC1Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 34N 01W 33CBD1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 34N 02W 31DAA1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- Taren NelsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- EVERGREEN HIGHWAY DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reubens'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 Reubens.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Reubens
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reubens
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reubens
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reubens, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Reubens. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Reubens
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 Reubens average
Your land is one point inside Reubens
Everything above resolves to Reubens as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 108 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 Reubens Average
Reubens Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Reubens
- ●One soil character for all of Reubens
- ●Frost dates read at Reubens's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reubens's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reubens
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reubens, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reubens averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reubens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reubens average
How we know this about Reubens
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 Reubens’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 Reubens
When does frost risk typically end in Reubens?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reubens 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 Reubens?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reubens typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reubens?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reubens sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 29, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reubens?
The federal record around Reubens is a meaningful one — 49 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Reubens?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Reubens's scale — its 6b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reubens'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 Reubens’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Reubens's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 108 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reubens's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Reubens's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 13 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reubens, the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reubens's boundary and the 108 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Reubens sits in the Northern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reubens's 108 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lewis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lewis 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 Lewis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reubens's 108 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reubens you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 108 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.3 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 Reubens-wide figureread your own land →
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