Guthrie Center, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Guthrie Center, 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 Guthrie Center 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 Guthrie Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Guthrie Center — the short answer
Guthrie Center, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 5a is Guthrie Center's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guthrie Center's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guthrie Center
Each reading below is measured for Guthrie Center itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuthrie Center runs about 179 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
MeasuredGuthrie Center sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Guthrie Center is in
Guthrie Center sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Guthrie Center's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guthrie County.
What Grows in Guthrie Center
Every plant below cleared Guthrie Center's own zone 5a and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guthrie Center?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Guthrie Center
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guthrie Center. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER GUTHRIE CENTER SCHOOL BUS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WELLS VETERINARY CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- IDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CENTRAL IOWA FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- GUTHRIE COUNTY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SPARKY''S ONE STOP #17Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1534Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- FORMER WARDROBE CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GILSON CONSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STAR ENERGYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guthrie Center'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 Guthrie Center.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Guthrie Center
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guthrie Center
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guthrie Center
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guthrie Center, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Guthrie Center. 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 Guthrie Center
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 Guthrie Center average
Your land is one point inside Guthrie Center
Everything above resolves to Guthrie Center as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Guthrie Center Average
Guthrie Center Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Guthrie Center
- ●One soil character for all of Guthrie Center
- ●Frost dates read at Guthrie Center's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guthrie Center's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guthrie Center
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guthrie Center, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guthrie Center averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guthrie Center — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guthrie Center average
How we know this about Guthrie Center
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 Guthrie Center’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 Guthrie Center
When does frost risk typically end in Guthrie Center?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guthrie Center typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Guthrie Center?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guthrie Center typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guthrie Center?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guthrie Center sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Sep 30, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guthrie Center?
The federal record around Guthrie Center shows 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), 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 Guthrie Center?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Guthrie Center's scale — its 5a band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guthrie Center'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 Guthrie Center’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guthrie Center's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,523 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guthrie Center's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guthrie Center's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 14 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guthrie Center, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guthrie Center's boundary and the 1,523 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guthrie Center'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 Guthrie Center's 1,523 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guthrie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guthrie 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 Guthrie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Guthrie Center's 1,523 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guthrie Center you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,523 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 Guthrie Center-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaGuthrie Center sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides