Chenoa, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Chenoa, 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 Chenoa 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 Chenoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chenoa — the short answer
Chenoa, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Chenoa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chenoa's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chenoa
Each reading below is measured for Chenoa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChenoa runs about 205 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChenoa 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 Chenoa is in
Chenoa sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chenoa's own centroid rather than borrowed from McLean County.
What Grows in Chenoa
Every plant below cleared Chenoa's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chenoa?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Chenoa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chenoa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Poole AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Kore's ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Casey's General Store #1630Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Chenoa Welding & Fabrication, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Phillips 66 ChenoaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Prairie Central Cooperative, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Chenoa High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Christopher LeeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Phillips 66 Co #009591Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Prairie Central Cooperative IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Chenoa Fs Fertilizer PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ed Petersen FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chenoa'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 Chenoa.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Chenoa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chenoa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chenoa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chenoa, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Chenoa — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (58 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Chenoa
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 Chenoa average
Your land is one point inside Chenoa
Everything above resolves to Chenoa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Chenoa Average
Chenoa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Chenoa
- ●One soil character for all of Chenoa
- ●Frost dates read at Chenoa's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chenoa's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chenoa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chenoa, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chenoa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chenoa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chenoa average
How we know this about Chenoa
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Chenoa’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Chenoa
When does frost risk typically end in Chenoa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chenoa typically lands around Apr 9, 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 Apr 30.
When is the first frost in Chenoa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chenoa typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chenoa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chenoa sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 17, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chenoa?
The federal record around Chenoa shows 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Chenoa?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chenoa's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chenoa'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 Chenoa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Chenoa's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,555 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chenoa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chenoa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 31 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chenoa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chenoa's boundary and the 1,555 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chenoa'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 Chenoa's 1,555 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McLean County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McLean 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 McLean County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chenoa's 1,555 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chenoa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,555 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 Chenoa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisChenoa sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.