Durant, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Durant, 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 Durant 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 Durant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Durant — the short answer
Durant, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 201 days between hard freezes, across 790 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~201
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 790 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 Durant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Durant's 201-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Durant
Each reading below is measured for Durant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDurant runs about 201 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDurant 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 Durant is in
Durant sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Durant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cedar County.
What Grows in Durant
Every plant below cleared Durant's own zone 5b and its 201-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Durant?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Durant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Durant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 2684Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- DURANT TOOL & FABRICATING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WILSON CHEVROLET AMC JEEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PRICE OIL COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PIONEER HI-BRED INTERNATIONAL - MGDBrownfields · 650 ft
- DURANT RESEARCH FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- KNUDSEN STANDARD SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- DURANT MUNICIPAL ELECTRIC PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PRICE OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 079N01W36CDC 01274 1940Durant 1Nitrate · 800 ft
- DURANT HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 800 ft
- DURANT COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Durant'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 Durant.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Durant
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Durant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Durant
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Durant, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 15 sites within ~10 miles of Durant. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Durant
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 Durant average
Your land is one point inside Durant
Everything above resolves to Durant as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 790 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 Durant Average
Durant Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Durant
- ●One soil character for all of Durant
- ●Frost dates read at Durant's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Durant's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Durant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Durant, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Durant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Durant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Durant average
How we know this about Durant
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 Durant’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 Durant
When does frost risk typically end in Durant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Durant typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Durant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Durant typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 201 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Durant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Durant sees about 201 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 11, about 166 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Durant?
The federal record around Durant shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Durant?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Durant's scale — its 5b band and its 201-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Durant'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 Durant’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Durant's own scale — its own ~201-day season between 28°F freezes, the 790 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Durant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Durant's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 25 and the ~201-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Durant, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Durant's boundary and the 790 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~201-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Durant'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 Durant's 790 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cedar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cedar 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 Cedar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Durant's 790 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Durant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 790 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Durant-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaDurant sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.