Keokuk County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Keokuk County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Keokuk 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 Keokuk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Keokuk County — the short answer
Keokuk County, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 371K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 371K 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 Keokuk County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keokuk County's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Keokuk County
Across a year, Keokuk County accumulates about 3,000 growing degree days above 50°F, about 256 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 76 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 Keokuk County
Across Keokuk County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Ladoga, Clinton, and Mahaska are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
18%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Keokuk County
The USDA soil survey maps 47% of Keokuk County as moderately well drained — but another 52% drains differently: 19% poorly drained, 17% somewhat poorly drained.
Ladoga is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Clinton (11%) and Mahaska (9%).
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 Keokuk County
Each reading below is measured for Keokuk 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 Keokuk County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Keokuk County runs about pH 6.0–6.5, 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 18% of Keokuk 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
MeasuredKeokuk County runs about 197 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
The kind of country Keokuk County is in
Keokuk County sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Keokuk County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Keokuk County's own USDA zone 5b and its own 197-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 Keokuk County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Keokuk County
USGS estimates 201,518 lb of Glyphosate on Keokuk County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (180,737 lb) and Atrazine (164,876 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 Keokuk County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Keokuk County — 166 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Keokuk County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Keokuk County
Closest first, across Keokuk County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DURO-LAST ROOFING, INCToxics Release Inventory · 2500 ft
- BENDER FOUNDRY SERVICE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2600 ft
- SIGOURNEY OIL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SIGOURNEY JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 075N11W07CCBB 1997NAWQA Keokuk Co IADRN-9Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SIGOURNEY BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SIGOURNEY COMM SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LARRYS ALIGNMENT & REPAIR CENTERBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE #2822Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 075N12W12CBA 05683 1952Sigourney Test 1Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 075N12W11DAC 05705 1952Sigourney Test 1BNitrate · 1.8 mi
- IDEAL READY MIX CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keokuk 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 Keokuk County.
Total Sites
166
across Keokuk County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Keokuk County
Severity Distribution
across Keokuk County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keokuk County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites across Keokuk County. 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 Keokuk 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 Keokuk County average
Your land is one point inside Keokuk County
Everything above resolves to Keokuk County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 371K 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 Keokuk County Average
Keokuk County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Keokuk County
- ●One soil character for all of Keokuk County
- ●Frost dates read at Keokuk County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keokuk County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Keokuk County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keokuk County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keokuk County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keokuk County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keokuk County average
How we know this about Keokuk 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 Keokuk County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Keokuk County
When does frost risk typically end in Keokuk County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keokuk County typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
How long is the growing season in Keokuk County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keokuk County sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 10, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keokuk County?
The federal record around Keokuk County shows 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 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.
Everything above is measured at Keokuk County's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keokuk 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 Keokuk County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Keokuk County's own scale — its own ~197-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 166 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keokuk County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keokuk County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Keokuk CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 166 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Keokuk County's boundary and the 370,672 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Keokuk County sitting wholly inside the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Keokuk 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 Keokuk County — the ~197 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 Keokuk County's 370,672 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 166 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 Keokuk Countyread your own land →