Center Point, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Center Point, 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 Center Point 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 Center Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Center Point — the short answer
Center Point, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- 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 5a is Center Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Center Point's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Center Point
Each reading below is measured for Center Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCenter Point runs about 188 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
MeasuredCenter Point 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 Center Point is in
Center Point sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Center Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Linn County.
What Grows in Center Point
Every plant below cleared Center Point's own zone 5a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Center Point?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Center Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Center Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 085N08W09DBC 00170 1934Center PointNitrate · 750 ft
- 150 TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2647Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- THE CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- LINN COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CENTER POINT CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CENTER POINT-URBANA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2500 ft
- RHINEHART''S TEXACO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CENTER POINT TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 085N08W09BAB 18947 1966Center Point 1Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- SITE OF FORMER RYDELL CHEVROLETBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Center Point'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 Center Point.
Total Sites
188
within ~10 miles of Center Point
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Center Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Center Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Center Point, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Center Point. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Center Point
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 Center Point average
Your land is one point inside Center Point
Everything above resolves to Center Point 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 Center Point Average
Center Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Center Point
- ●One soil character for all of Center Point
- ●Frost dates read at Center Point's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Center Point's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Center Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Center Point, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Center Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Center Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Center Point average
How we know this about Center Point
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 Center Point’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 Center Point
When does frost risk typically end in Center Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Center Point typically lands around Apr 15, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Center Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Center Point typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Center Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Center Point sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 15 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 6 to Oct 6, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Center Point?
The federal record around Center Point shows 188 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (124), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Center Point?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Center Point's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Center Point'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 Center Point’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Center Point's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,745 acres it covers and 188 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Center Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Center Point's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 20 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 188 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Center Point, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Center Point's boundary and the 1,745 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Center Point'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 Center Point's 1,745 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Linn County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Linn 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 Linn County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Center Point's 1,745 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Center Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,745 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Center Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaCenter Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides