Tensed, 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.
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 Tensed, 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 Tensed 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 Tensed — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tensed — the short answer
Tensed, Idaho: USDA zone 6b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 120 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 120 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 Tensed's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tensed's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tensed
Each reading below is measured for Tensed itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTensed runs about 171 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
MeasuredTensed 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 Tensed is in
Tensed sits in the Columbia Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tensed's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Benewah County is mostly Northern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tensed
Every plant below cleared Tensed's own zone 6b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Idaho profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tensed?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Tensed
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tensed. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 44N 05W 11CCC1Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 44N 05W 04BCC1Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 45N 05W 29BBB1Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 45N 04W 17DAB1Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- WILLOW CREEK REMOTE RADIO 4350-B01Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 44N 04W 35DBA1Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- 19N/46E-31J01 LE18Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- 18N/46E-06B01D1 SU04Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- LOREN L FISHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- 18N/46E-06G01 SU19Nitrate · 7.5 mi
- PUREGRO COMPANY FARMINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- 45N 04W 24CAC1Nitrate · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tensed'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 Tensed.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tensed
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tensed
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tensed, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Tensed. 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 Tensed
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 Tensed average
Your land is one point inside Tensed
Everything above resolves to Tensed as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 120 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 Tensed Average
Tensed Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Tensed
- ●One soil character for all of Tensed
- ●Frost dates read at Tensed's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tensed's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tensed
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tensed, Idaho — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tensed averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tensed — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tensed average
How we know this about Tensed
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 Tensed’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 Tensed
When does frost risk typically end in Tensed?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tensed typically lands around Apr 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 May 14.
When is the first frost in Tensed?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tensed typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tensed?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tensed sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 27, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tensed?
The federal record around Tensed is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tensed?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tensed's scale — its 6b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tensed'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 Tensed’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tensed's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 120 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tensed's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tensed's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 11 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tensed, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tensed's boundary and the 120 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tensed 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 Tensed's 120 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benewah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benewah 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 Benewah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tensed's 120 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tensed you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 120 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Tensed-wide figureread your own land →
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