Soda Springs, Idaho, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Soda Springs, 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 Soda Springs 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 Soda Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Soda Springs — the short answer
Soda Springs, Idaho: USDA zone 5a, about 118 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~118
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Soda Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Soda Springs's 118-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Soda Springs
Each reading below is measured for Soda Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSoda Springs runs about 118 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
MeasuredSoda Springs 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 Soda Springs is in
Soda Springs sits in the Northern Basin and Range — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Soda Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Caribou County.
What Grows in Soda Springs
Every plant below cleared Soda Springs's own zone 5a and its 118-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Soda Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 18 — 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 Soda Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Soda Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEKER INDUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PATTERSON QUIK STOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- LYSLE C BARTHLOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SODA SPRINGS CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE SODA SPRINGSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ONE STOP LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DIGGS LEWIS SR.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARIBOU COUNTY R&B SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TRAIL GUARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WASHINGTON CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CONDA MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DRAVO-SODA SPRINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Soda Springs'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 Soda Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Soda Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Soda Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Soda Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Soda Springs — Superfund (9 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Soda Springs
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 Soda Springs average
Your land is one point inside Soda Springs
Everything above resolves to Soda Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Soda Springs Average
Soda Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Soda Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Soda Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Soda Springs's scale: May 23 to Sep 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Soda Springs's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Soda Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Soda Springs, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Soda Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Soda Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Soda Springs average
How we know this about Soda Springs
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 Soda Springs’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 Soda Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Soda Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Soda Springs typically lands around May 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Soda Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Soda Springs typically arrives around Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 4, so the watching starts about Aug 19 — about 118 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Soda Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Soda Springs sees about 118 frost-free days — roughly May 23 through Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 13 to Sep 4, about 83 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Soda Springs?
The federal record around Soda Springs is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Soda Springs?
With about 118 frost-free days between hard freezes, Soda Springs 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 146 to 174 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 23 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Soda Springs's scale — its 5a band and its 118-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Soda Springs'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 Soda Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Soda Springs's own scale — its own ~118-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,833 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Soda Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Soda Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 23 and Sep 18 and the ~118-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Soda Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Soda Springs's boundary and the 2,833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~118-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Soda Springs's own centroid, the Northern Basin and RangeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Soda Springs's 2,833 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Caribou County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Caribou 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 Caribou County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Soda Springs's 2,833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Soda Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,833 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Soda Springs-wide figureread your own land →