Capron, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Capron, 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 Capron 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 Capron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Capron — the short answer
Capron, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 494 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 494 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 5b is Capron's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Capron's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Capron
Each reading below is measured for Capron itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCapron runs about 192 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
MeasuredCapron 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 Capron is in
Capron sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Capron's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Capron
Every plant below cleared Capron's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Capron?
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 Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Capron
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Capron. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SURFACE MANUFACTURING COBrownfields · 300 ft
- Boone Township OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Capron Village OfUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- OMAK MFG INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- KEATING OF CHICAGOBrownfields · 800 ft
- Bill PurvisUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CAPRON AUTOBrownfields · 950 ft
- Casey's General Store #3468Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CAPRON MFG CO-CAPRON P/TToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- CAPRON MFG CO-CAPRON P/TBrownfields · 1300 ft
- Capron Elem SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 45N 4E-22.8hNitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Capron'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 Capron.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of Capron
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Capron
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Capron
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Capron, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Capron — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Capron
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 Capron average
Your land is one point inside Capron
Everything above resolves to Capron as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 494 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 Capron Average
Capron Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Capron
- ●One soil character for all of Capron
- ●Frost dates read at Capron's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Capron's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Capron
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Capron, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Capron averages can't show:
We read public map data around Capron — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Capron average
How we know this about Capron
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 Capron’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 Capron
When does frost risk typically end in Capron?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Capron typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Capron?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Capron typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Capron?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Capron sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Capron?
The federal record around Capron is a meaningful one — 158 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Capron?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Capron's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Capron'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 Capron’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Capron's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 494 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Capron's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Capron's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Capron, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Capron's boundary and the 494 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Capron's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Capron's 494 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone 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 Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Capron's 494 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Capron you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 494 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Capron-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisCapron sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides