Kane County, in Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — 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, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kane County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kane County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Kane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kane County — the short answer
Kane County, Utah: USDA zone 7a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 2.6M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.6M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 7a is Kane County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kane County's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Kane County
Across a year, Kane County accumulates about 2,731 growing degree days above 50°F, about 219 more than the middle Utah county — ahead of 18 of Utah’s 29 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Kane County
Across Kane County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Pinepoint, Parkwash, and Daklos are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kane County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Kane County as well drained — but another 24% drains differently: 12% excessively drained, 12% somewhat excessively drained.
Pinepoint is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Parkwash (4%) and Daklos (4%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Kane County
Each reading below is measured for Kane County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Kane County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Kane County runs about pH 7.5–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredKane County runs about 190 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
MeasuredKane County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Kane County is in
Kane County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Colorado Plateaus (94%) and Wasatch and Uinta Mountains (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Kane County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kane County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 190-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile.
Is it too late to plant in Kane County?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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.
Documented around Kane County
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kane County
USGS estimates 736 lb of Glyphosate on Kane County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Chlorpyrifos (387 lb) and Dimethoate (203 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Kane County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kane County — 84 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 15 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Kane County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kane County
Closest first, across Kane County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- UnnamedMining · 4.1 mi
- Hattie GreenMining · 11.1 mi
- HALLS WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 13.4 mi
- Radiance GroupMining · 13.5 mi
- Bullet ShaftsMining · 15.4 mi
- WARM CREEK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 15.9 mi
- Ridge CopperMining · 16.0 mi
- LAKE POWELL MARINE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.1 mi
- Copper CliffsMining · 17.2 mi
- Rock Springs LeadMining · 17.2 mi
- Rock Spring LeadMining · 17.2 mi
- BIG WATER TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 17.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kane County'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 Kane County.
Sources Checked
across Kane County
Severity Distribution
across Kane County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kane County, two things run higher than the national average across Kane County — Mining (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (56 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kane County
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 Kane County average
Your land is one point inside Kane County
Everything above resolves to Kane County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.6M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Kane County Average
Kane County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Kane County
- ●One soil character for all of Kane County
- ●Frost dates read at Kane County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kane County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kane County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kane County, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kane County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kane County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kane County average
How we know this about Kane County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Kane County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kane County
When does frost risk typically end in Kane County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kane County typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Kane County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kane County sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kane County?
The federal record around Kane County shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Mining record about 4.1 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Kane County's scale — its 7a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kane County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Utah's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Kane County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kane County's own scale — its own ~190-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 84 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kane County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kane County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kane CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 84 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Mining record about 4.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kane County's boundary and the 2,556,247 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kane County spans, Colorado Plateaus the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kane County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kane County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Kane County — the ~190 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kane County's 2,556,247 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 84 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Kane Countyread your own land →