Apple River, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Apple River, 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 Apple River 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 Apple River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apple River — the short answer
Apple River, Illinois: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 451 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 451 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 Apple River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apple River's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apple River
Each reading below is measured for Apple River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApple River runs about 185 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
MeasuredApple River 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 Apple River is in
Apple River sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apple River's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jo Daviess County.
What Grows in Apple River
Every plant below cleared Apple River's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apple River?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Apple River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apple River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Apple River City OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Thriving Thistle MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TOWN OF ELK GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HOLLAND, WILLIAMCAFO · 3.5 mi
- LOUIE REISNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Apple River Canyon State ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Rick's Sales & ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- LF-01/02E/25-0181Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- Warren Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Contel Of IlUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Warren Farmers Exchange, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Krupke StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apple River'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 Apple River.
Total Sites
150
within ~10 miles of Apple River
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apple River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apple River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apple River, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Apple River — Mining (37 sites) and CAFO (4 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Apple River
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 Apple River average
Your land is one point inside Apple River
Everything above resolves to Apple River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 451 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 Apple River Average
Apple River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Apple River
- ●One soil character for all of Apple River
- ●Frost dates read at Apple River's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apple River's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apple River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apple River, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apple River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apple River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apple River average
How we know this about Apple River
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 Apple River’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 Apple River
When does frost risk typically end in Apple River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apple River typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Apple River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apple River typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apple River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apple River sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apple River?
The federal record around Apple River runs heavier than most — 150 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Apple River?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apple River's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apple River'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 Apple River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Apple River's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 451 acres it covers and 150 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apple River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apple River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 150 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apple River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apple River's boundary and the 451 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Apple River's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apple River's 451 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jo Daviess County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jo Daviess County
- The growing challenges every Illinois grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Illinois
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jo Daviess County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apple River's 451 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apple River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 451 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Apple River-wide figureread your own land →
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