Sanpete County, in Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sanpete County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sanpete 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 Sanpete County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sanpete County — the short answer
Sanpete County, Utah: USDA zone 5b, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 1.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.0M 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 5b is Sanpete County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sanpete County's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sanpete County
Across a year, Sanpete County accumulates about 2,170 growing degree days above 50°F, about 342 fewer than the middle Utah county — ahead of 11 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 Sanpete County
Across Sanpete County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Fontreen, Sanpete, and Amtoft are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.5, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sanpete County
The USDA soil survey maps 73% of Sanpete County as well drained — but another 19% drains differently: 10% somewhat excessively drained, 4% poorly drained.
Fontreen is the most extensive named soil at 6% of mapped acres, then Sanpete (5%) and Amtoft (5%).
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 Sanpete County
Each reading below is measured for Sanpete 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 Sanpete County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Sanpete County runs about pH 7.9–8.5, 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
MeasuredSanpete County runs about 157 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
MeasuredSanpete County sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Sanpete County is in
Sanpete County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Wasatch and Uinta Mountains (82%) and Central Basin and Range (18%). 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 Sanpete County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sanpete County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 157-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 Sanpete 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 Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Sanpete County
- monarch butterfly6 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sanpete County
USGS estimates 9,009 lb of Glyphosate on Sanpete County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (3,861 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (3,404 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 Sanpete County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sanpete County — 198 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Sanpete County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Sanpete County
Closest first, across Sanpete County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2794Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- USU SNOW COLLEGE FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MIRASTAR #62005Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- QUESTAR GAS FEEDERLINE 064 ILI FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SNOW COLLEGE PHYSICAL PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EPHRAIM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SNOW COLLEGE-HUMANITIES AND ARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SNOW COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- TOP STOP C-2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THOMPSON SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MAVERIK #536Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- U.S.WEST 671090Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sanpete 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 Sanpete County.
Total Sites
198
across Sanpete County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Sanpete County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sanpete County, two things run higher than the national average across Sanpete County — CAFO (18 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sanpete 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 Sanpete County average
Your land is one point inside Sanpete County
Everything above resolves to Sanpete County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.0M 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 Sanpete County Average
Sanpete County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sanpete County
- ●One soil character for all of Sanpete County
- ●Frost dates read at Sanpete County's scale: May 4 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sanpete County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sanpete County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sanpete County, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sanpete County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sanpete County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sanpete County average
How we know this about Sanpete 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 Sanpete County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sanpete County
When does frost risk typically end in Sanpete County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sanpete County typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Sanpete County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sanpete County sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 24, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sanpete County?
The federal record around Sanpete County is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Sanpete County's scale — its 5b band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sanpete 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 Sanpete County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sanpete County's own scale — its own ~157-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 198 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sanpete County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sanpete County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sanpete CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 198 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sanpete County's boundary and the 1,017,482 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Sanpete County spans, Wasatch and Uinta Mountains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sanpete County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sanpete 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 Sanpete County — the ~157 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 Sanpete County's 1,017,482 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 198 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 Sanpete Countyread your own land →