Camanche, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camanche, 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 Camanche 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 Camanche — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camanche — the short answer
Camanche, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 6K 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Camanche's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camanche's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camanche
Each reading below is measured for Camanche itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCamanche runs about 199 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
MeasuredCamanche 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 Camanche is in
Camanche sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Camanche's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Camanche
Every plant below cleared Camanche's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Camanche?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Camanche
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camanche. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 081N06E29AAD 13999 1963Nitrate · 1800 ft
- PCS NITROGEN FERTILIZER - CLINTON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- MID AMERICA PIPELINE CO LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- COMPLIMENT CORP SUB OF NEOAX INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LAWRENCE TODTZ FARMSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- ITC MIDWEST ROCK CREEKBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 081N06E27CBC 22806 1971Camanche 3Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- CAMANCHE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- POLICE STATION/FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KWIK STAR #632Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ROADWAY EXPRESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camanche'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 Camanche.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camanche
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camanche
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camanche, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Camanche. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Camanche
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 Camanche average
Your land is one point inside Camanche
Everything above resolves to Camanche as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Camanche Average
Camanche Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Camanche
- ●One soil character for all of Camanche
- ●Frost dates read at Camanche's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camanche's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camanche
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camanche, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camanche averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camanche — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camanche average
How we know this about Camanche
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 Camanche’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 Camanche
When does frost risk typically end in Camanche?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camanche 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 Camanche?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camanche typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Camanche?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camanche sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Camanche?
The federal record around Camanche is a meaningful one — 378 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (195), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles 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 Camanche?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Camanche's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camanche'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 Camanche’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Camanche's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,683 acres it covers and 378 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camanche's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Camanche's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 378 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camanche, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camanche's boundary and the 5,683 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Camanche's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Camanche's 5,683 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton County
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Camanche's 5,683 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camanche you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,683 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Camanche-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaCamanche sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides