Conesville, Iowa, 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 Conesville, 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 Conesville 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 Conesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conesville — the short answer
Conesville, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 206 days between hard freezes, across 230 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~206
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 230 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 Conesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conesville's 206-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conesville
Each reading below is measured for Conesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConesville 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
MeasuredConesville 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 Conesville is in
Conesville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Conesville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Muscatine County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Conesville
Every plant below cleared Conesville's own zone 5b and its 206-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Conesville?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — 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 Conesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEBER & HUSTON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PIPERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 076N05W13DBBNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 076N04W29CBCB 01000 1939Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 8904000020 Cedar River at ConesvilleNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 8903000020 Cedar River at ConesvilleNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 8902000020 Cedar River at ConesvilleNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 8901000020 Cedar River at ConesvilleNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 8900000020 Cedar River at ConesvilleNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 075N05W01DDC 10529 1958Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 075N04W07BBD 48908 1972NGP-M-1Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- 075N05W12DCC 17175 1964NGP-1Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Conesville'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 Conesville.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Conesville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Conesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Conesville, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Conesville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Conesville
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 Conesville average
Your land is one point inside Conesville
Everything above resolves to Conesville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 230 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 Conesville Average
Conesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Conesville
- ●One soil character for all of Conesville
- ●Frost dates read at Conesville's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conesville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conesville, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conesville average
How we know this about Conesville
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 Conesville’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 Conesville
When does frost risk typically end in Conesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conesville typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Conesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conesville typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 206 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Conesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conesville sees about 206 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 15, about 171 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Conesville?
The federal record around Conesville shows 135 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Conesville?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Conesville's scale — its 5b band and its 206-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conesville'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 Conesville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conesville's own scale — its own ~206-day season between 28°F freezes, the 230 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conesville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 29 and the ~206-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conesville's boundary and the 230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~206-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Conesville sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Conesville's 230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Muscatine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Muscatine 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 Muscatine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conesville's 230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 230 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 Conesville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaConesville sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides