Henry County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Henry County lies within the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Henry County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Henry County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Henry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Henry County — the short answer
Henry County, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 278K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 278K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Henry County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Henry County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Henry County
Across a year, Henry County accumulates about 3,189 growing degree days above 50°F, about 445 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 92 of Iowa’s 99 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Henry County
Across Henry County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Mahaska, Taintor, and Lindley are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.9–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
31%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Henry County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Henry County as moderately well drained — but another 62% drains differently: 25% somewhat poorly drained, 23% poorly drained.
Mahaska is the most extensive named soil at 9% of mapped acres, then Taintor (9%) and Lindley (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Henry County
Each reading below is measured for Henry County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Henry County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Henry County runs about pH 5.9–6.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 24% of Henry County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredHenry County runs about 207 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
The kind of country Henry County is in
Henry County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Corn Belt Plains (60%) and Central Irregular Plains (40%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Henry County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Henry County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 207-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile.
Is it too late to plant in Henry County?
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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Henry County
- monarch butterfly224 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Henry County
USGS estimates 135,116 lb of Glyphosate on Henry County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (113,922 lb) and Atrazine (103,099 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Henry County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Henry County — 219 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Henry County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Henry County
Closest first, across Henry County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J J NITCHING COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #1012Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- COLONIAL BAKERY DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BUFF''S IRIS CITY TRUCK PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 784Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- FORMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PRECISION COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- ORR ENTERPRISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MURPHY OIL #7003Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 071N06W09ABA 00101 1915Mount Pleasant 2Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 071N06W09ABAC 01968 1946Mount Pleasant 4Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- MOUNT PLEASANT COMM SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Henry County'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 Henry County.
Total Sites
219
across Henry County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Henry County
Severity Distribution
across Henry County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Henry County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 84 sites across Henry County. 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 Henry County
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 Henry County average
Your land is one point inside Henry County
Everything above resolves to Henry County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 278K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Henry County Average
Henry County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Henry County
- ●One soil character for all of Henry County
- ●Frost dates read at Henry County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Henry County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Henry County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Henry County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Henry County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Henry County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henry County average
How we know this about Henry County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Henry County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Henry County
When does frost risk typically end in Henry County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Henry County 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.
How long is the growing season in Henry County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Henry County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 16, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Henry County?
The federal record around Henry County is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Henry County's scale — its 5b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Henry County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Iowa's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Henry County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Henry County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 219 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Henry County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Henry County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Henry CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 219 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Henry County's boundary and the 277,944 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Henry County spans, Western Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Henry County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Henry County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Iowa grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Iowa
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Henry County — the ~207 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Henry County's 277,944 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 219 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Henry Countyread your own land →