Muscatine County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Muscatine County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Muscatine 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 Muscatine County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Muscatine County — the short answer
Muscatine County, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 280K acres.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 280K 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 Muscatine County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Muscatine County's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Muscatine County
Across a year, Muscatine County accumulates about 3,081 growing degree days above 50°F, about 337 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 88 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 Muscatine County
Across Muscatine County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Fayette, Downs, and Tama are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
31%
Hydric soils
30%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Muscatine County
The USDA soil survey maps 40% of Muscatine County as well drained — but another 58% drains differently: 25% poorly drained, 15% somewhat poorly drained.
Fayette is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Downs (7%) and Tama (5%).
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 Muscatine County
Each reading below is measured for Muscatine 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 Muscatine County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Muscatine County runs about pH 6.2–6.5, 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 30% of Muscatine 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
MeasuredMuscatine 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 Muscatine County is in
Muscatine County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Western Corn Belt Plains (60%) and Interior River Valleys and Hills (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 Muscatine County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Muscatine 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 Muscatine County?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Muscatine County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly13 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Muscatine County
USGS estimates 150,331 lb of Glyphosate on Muscatine County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (86,253 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (58,445 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 Muscatine County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Muscatine County — 555 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 47 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Muscatine 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 Muscatine County
Closest first, across Muscatine County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2906Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- MUSCATINE POWER AND WATER LANDFILLBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- MUSCATINE POWER & WATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- WEST SIDE STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- MUSCATINE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- MUSCATINE POWER & WATERPFAS · 4.1 mi
- RIVERVIEW SUBDIVISIONPFAS · 4.1 mi
- 077N03W22BBBB 1997NAWQANitrate · 4.1 mi
- MUSCATINE MUNICIPAL GOLFBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- GENEVA GOLF & COUNTY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- BANDAG INC RYDER TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- CHURCHILL TRUCK LINES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Muscatine 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 Muscatine County.
Total Sites
555
across Muscatine County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
47 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Muscatine County
Severity Distribution
across Muscatine County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Muscatine County, two things run higher than the national average across Muscatine County — Nitrate (254 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (47 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Muscatine 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 Muscatine County average
Your land is one point inside Muscatine County
Everything above resolves to Muscatine County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 280K 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 Muscatine County Average
Muscatine County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Muscatine County
- ●One soil character for all of Muscatine County
- ●Frost dates read at Muscatine County's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Muscatine County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Muscatine County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Muscatine County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Muscatine County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Muscatine County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Muscatine County average
How we know this about Muscatine 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 Muscatine County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Muscatine County
When does frost risk typically end in Muscatine County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Muscatine County typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
How long is the growing season in Muscatine County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Muscatine County sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Muscatine County?
The federal record around Muscatine County is a meaningful one — 555 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (254), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 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 Muscatine County's scale — its 5b band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Muscatine 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 Muscatine County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Muscatine County's own scale — its own ~207-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 555 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Muscatine County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Muscatine 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 Muscatine CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 555 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Muscatine County's boundary and the 279,961 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 Muscatine County spans, Western Corn Belt Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Muscatine County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Muscatine 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 Muscatine 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 Muscatine County's 279,961 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 555 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 Muscatine Countyread your own land →