Rexburg, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rexburg, 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 Rexburg 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 Rexburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rexburg — the short answer
Rexburg, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 145 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~145
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Rexburg's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rexburg's 145-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rexburg
Each reading below is measured for Rexburg itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRexburg runs about 145 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
MeasuredRexburg 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 Rexburg is in
Rexburg sits in the Snake River Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Rexburg's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Rexburg
Every plant below cleared Rexburg's own zone 5a and its 145-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rexburg?
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 Apr 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Rexburg
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rexburg. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAYS INC 3Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CIRCLE K #451Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- FLYNN'S MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- INTERWEST CABINETBrownfields · 700 ft
- Great Scotts'Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BIRCH PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- MAVERIK COUNTRY STORE #169Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- REXBURG SECTION - UPRRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Mr. Jim StevensonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JIM HORKLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KMART #9630Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GRANT RICKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rexburg'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 Rexburg.
Total Sites
263
within ~10 miles of Rexburg
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rexburg
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rexburg
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rexburg, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 126 sites within ~10 miles of Rexburg. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rexburg
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 Rexburg average
Your land is one point inside Rexburg
Everything above resolves to Rexburg as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Rexburg Average
Rexburg Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rexburg
- ●One soil character for all of Rexburg
- ●Frost dates read at Rexburg's scale: May 10 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rexburg's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rexburg
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rexburg, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rexburg averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rexburg — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rexburg average
How we know this about Rexburg
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 Rexburg’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 Rexburg
When does frost risk typically end in Rexburg?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rexburg typically lands around May 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Rexburg?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rexburg typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 145 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rexburg?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rexburg sees about 145 frost-free days — roughly May 10 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 31 to Sep 18, about 110 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rexburg?
The federal record around Rexburg is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (126), 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 gardeners stretch the season in Rexburg?
With about 145 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rexburg 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 173 to 201 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 10 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rexburg's scale — its 5a band and its 145-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rexburg'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 Rexburg’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rexburg's own scale — its own ~145-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,636 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rexburg's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rexburg's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 10 and Oct 2 and the ~145-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rexburg, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rexburg's boundary and the 6,636 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~145-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rexburg's own centroid, the Snake River PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rexburg's 6,636 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rexburg's 6,636 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rexburg you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,636 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 Rexburg-wide figureread your own land →