Loa, Utah, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect okra, blackberry, california poppy, and pumpkin to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Loa, 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 Loa 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 Loa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loa — the short answer
Loa, Utah: USDA zone 6a, about 113 days between hard freezes, across 608 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 28
- 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
- ~113
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 608 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 6a is Loa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loa's 113-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loa
Each reading below is measured for Loa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoa runs about 113 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
MeasuredLoa sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Loa is in
Loa sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Loa's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wayne County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Loa
Every plant below cleared Loa's own zone 6a and its 113-day season. Each card opens that plant's Utah profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loa?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 28 (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. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Loa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELLETT DISTRIBUTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DERRELL'S CHEVRON 7-8043Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WAYNE COUNTY ROAD SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UDOT # 4466Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BROWN BROTHERS CONST.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GARKANE POWER LOA DISTRICT OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BRIAN IFA FARM SERV CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- (D-27- 2)26ddc- 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- (D-28- 2) 3ccb- 1Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- (D-27- 2)33dda- 1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- (D-27- 3)19aaa- 1Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- (D-27- 3)18ddb- 1Nitrate · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Loa'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 Loa.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Loa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Loa. 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 Loa
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 Loa average
Your land is one point inside Loa
Everything above resolves to Loa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 608 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 town 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 Loa Average
Loa Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Loa
- ●One soil character for all of Loa
- ●Frost dates read at Loa's scale: May 28 to Sep 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loa's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loa, Utah — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loa average
How we know this about Loa
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Loa’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Loa
When does frost risk typically end in Loa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loa typically lands around May 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Loa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loa 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 113 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loa sees about 113 frost-free days — roughly May 28 through Sep 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 18 to Sep 4, about 78 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loa?
The federal record around Loa is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in Loa?
With about 113 frost-free days between hard freezes, Loa 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 141 to 169 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 28 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Loa's scale — its 6a band and its 113-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loa'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 Loa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loa's own scale — its own ~113-day season between 28°F freezes, the 608 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 28 and Sep 18 and the ~113-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loa's boundary and the 608 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~113-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Loa sits in the Wasatch and Uinta Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loa's 608 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne County
- The growing challenges every Utah grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Utah
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loa's 608 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 608 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Loa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Utah
Wider growing context
What grows across UtahLoa sits outside our named growing regions, so Utah as a whole is its closest context here.