Ringgold County, in Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Ringgold County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Ringgold 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 Ringgold County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ringgold County — the short answer
Ringgold County, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 343K 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
- 343K 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 Ringgold County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ringgold County's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Ringgold County
Across a year, Ringgold County accumulates about 2,976 growing degree days above 50°F, about 232 more than the middle Iowa county — ahead of 74 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 Ringgold County
Across Ringgold County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Gara, Armstrong, and Zook are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a silty clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
11%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Ringgold County
The USDA soil survey maps 40% of Ringgold County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 60% drains differently: 24% well drained, 23% poorly drained.
Gara is the most extensive named soil at 16% of mapped acres, then Armstrong (10%) and Zook (7%).
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 Ringgold County
Each reading below is measured for Ringgold 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 Ringgold County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Ringgold 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
Season length
MeasuredRinggold 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRinggold County 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 Ringgold County is in
Ringgold County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Irregular Plains (73%) and Western Corn Belt Plains (27%). 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 Ringgold County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Ringgold 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 Ringgold 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 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. 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 gets applied to farmland in Ringgold County
USGS estimates 84,825 lb of Glyphosate on Ringgold County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (45,578 lb) and Atrazine (36,529 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 Ringgold County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Ringgold County — 60 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Ringgold 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 Ringgold County
Closest first, across Ringgold County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOUNT AYR WATER TREATMENT PLANTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- ITC TRANSMISSION - MIDWEST MOUNT AYRBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- AMERICAN CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CENTRAL IOWA READY MIX MT. AYRToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RINGGOLD COUNTY-MT AYR SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DEPT OF NATURAL RESOURCESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- IOWA DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MOUNT AYR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GLENDENNING MOTOR CO INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 25Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DUGAN''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ringgold 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 Ringgold County.
Total Sites
60
across Ringgold County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Ringgold County
Severity Distribution
across Ringgold County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ringgold County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites across Ringgold County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Ringgold 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 Ringgold County average
Your land is one point inside Ringgold County
Everything above resolves to Ringgold County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 343K 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 Ringgold County Average
Ringgold County Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ringgold County
- ●One soil character for all of Ringgold County
- ●Frost dates read at Ringgold County's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ringgold County's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Ringgold County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ringgold County, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ringgold County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ringgold County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ringgold County average
How we know this about Ringgold 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 Ringgold County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Ringgold County
When does frost risk typically end in Ringgold County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ringgold 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 Ringgold County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ringgold 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 Ringgold County?
The federal record around Ringgold County shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Ringgold County's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ringgold 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 Ringgold County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Ringgold County's own scale — its own ~197-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 60 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ringgold County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ringgold 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 Ringgold CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 60 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Ringgold County's boundary and the 342,716 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Ringgold County spans, Central Irregular Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Ringgold 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 Ringgold 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 Ringgold County's 342,716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 60 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 Ringgold Countyread your own land →