Momence, Illinois, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Momence, 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 Momence 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 Momence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Momence — the short answer
Momence, Illinois: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Momence's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Momence's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Momence
Each reading below is measured for Momence itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMomence runs about 206 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
MeasuredMomence 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 Momence is in
Momence sits in the Central Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Momence's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kankakee County.
What Grows in Momence
Every plant below cleared Momence's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Illinois profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Momence?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Momence
Survey cells within 31 miles of Momence checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 34 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Momence
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Momence. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bloomquist Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Tallmadge RanchUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Mac's #180Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Ganeer Twp Hwy DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- H & E Sod Nursery, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- G & J AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- J & B Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Gilster Mary Lee, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Momence Convenient StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Casey's General Store #3494Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Jk & L AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- RIVERSIDE CHEV GEO SALESBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Momence'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 Momence.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Momence
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Momence
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Momence, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Momence — Superfund (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Momence
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 Momence average
Your land is one point inside Momence
Everything above resolves to Momence as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Momence Average
Momence Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Momence
- ●One soil character for all of Momence
- ●Frost dates read at Momence's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Momence's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Momence
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Momence, Illinois — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Momence averages can't show:
We read public map data around Momence — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Momence average
How we know this about Momence
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 Momence’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 Momence
When does frost risk typically end in Momence?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Momence typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Momence?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Momence typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Momence?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Momence sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 19, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Momence?
The federal record around Momence is a meaningful one — 239 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Momence?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Momence's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Momence'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 Momence’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Momence's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,011 acres it covers and 239 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Momence's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Momence's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 2 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Momence, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Momence's boundary and the 1,011 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Momence's own centroid, the Central Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Momence checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Momence's 1,011 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kankakee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kankakee 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 Kankakee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Momence's 1,011 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Momence you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,011 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Momence-wide figureread your own land →
More in Illinois
Wider growing context
What grows across IllinoisMomence sits outside our named growing regions, so Illinois as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides