Corning, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Corning, 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 Corning 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 Corning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Corning — the short answer
Corning, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 193 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~193
- 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 Corning's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Corning's 193-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Corning
Each reading below is measured for Corning itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCorning runs about 193 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
MeasuredCorning 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 Corning is in
Corning sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Corning's own centroid rather than borrowed from Adams County.
What Grows in Corning
Every plant below cleared Corning's own zone 5b and its 193-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Corning?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Corning
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Corning. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT&T COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- IDOT MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SOUTHWEST VALLEY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 900 ft
- CORNING MINI-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ST PATRICK CATHOLIC CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ANDERSON & MILLER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CENTRAL TELEPHONE COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DOWNEYS DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- ADAMS COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ANTISDEL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BAUERS TEXACO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- UFC MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Corning'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 Corning.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Corning
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Corning
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Corning
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Corning, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Corning. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Corning
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 Corning average
Your land is one point inside Corning
Everything above resolves to Corning 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 Corning Average
Corning Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Corning
- ●One soil character for all of Corning
- ●Frost dates read at Corning's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Corning's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Corning
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Corning, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Corning averages can't show:
We read public map data around Corning — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Corning average
How we know this about Corning
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 Corning’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 Corning
When does frost risk typically end in Corning?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Corning typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Corning?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Corning typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 193 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Corning?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Corning sees about 193 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 7, about 158 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Corning?
The federal record around Corning is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Corning?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Corning's scale — its 5b band and its 193-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Corning'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 Corning’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Corning's own scale — its own ~193-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,043 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Corning's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Corning's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 21 and the ~193-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Corning, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Corning's boundary and the 1,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~193-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Corning'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 Corning's 1,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Adams County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Adams 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 Adams County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Corning's 1,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Corning you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Corning-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaCorning sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.