Conroy, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Conroy, 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 Conroy 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 Conroy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Conroy — the short answer
Conroy, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 488 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 488 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 Conroy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Conroy's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Conroy
Each reading below is measured for Conroy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredConroy 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
MeasuredConroy 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 Conroy is in
Conroy sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Conroy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in Conroy
Every plant below cleared Conroy'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 Conroy?
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. 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 Conroy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Conroy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GATEWAY COOPERATIVE - CONROY NH3Brownfields · 850 ft
- 080N10W22BAB Conroy Public SchoolNitrate · 950 ft
- 080N10W22BA 22587 1970Conroy 1Nitrate · 1100 ft
- CONROY AG CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CONROY FARMERS COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 080N10W22BBBB 01160 1940Nitrate · 2300 ft
- IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- COLONY POINT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2769Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 080N10W35DDDNitrate · 3.1 mi
- MIDDLE AMERICA TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 080N10W01BBB South AmanaNitrate · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Conroy'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 Conroy.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Conroy
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Conroy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Conroy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Conroy, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 130 sites within ~10 miles of Conroy. 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 Conroy
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 Conroy average
Your land is one point inside Conroy
Everything above resolves to Conroy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 488 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 town 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 Conroy Average
Conroy Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Conroy
- ●One soil character for all of Conroy
- ●Frost dates read at Conroy's scale: Apr 15 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Conroy's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Conroy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Conroy, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Conroy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Conroy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Conroy average
How we know this about Conroy
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Conroy’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Conroy
When does frost risk typically end in Conroy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Conroy 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 Conroy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Conroy 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 Conroy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Conroy 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 Conroy?
The federal record around Conroy is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (130), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Conroy?
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 Conroy's scale — its 5a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Conroy'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 Conroy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Conroy's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 488 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Conroy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Conroy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 15 and Oct 20 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Conroy, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Conroy's boundary and the 488 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 Conroy'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 Conroy's 488 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Conroy's 488 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Conroy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 488 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Conroy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaConroy sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides