High Amana, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in High Amana, 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 High Amana 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 High Amana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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High Amana — the short answer
High Amana, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 245 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 245 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 High Amana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against High Amana's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in High Amana
Each reading below is measured for High Amana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHigh Amana runs about 190 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
MeasuredHigh Amana 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 High Amana is in
High Amana sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at High Amana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in High Amana
Every plant below cleared High Amana's own zone 5b and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in High Amana?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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's on the federal record near High Amana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of High Amana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A-42 AMANA FARMS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- 081N09W30BBAB 1969High Amana 10Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 081N10W24CCAC 1954West Amana 11Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- KRAUSS FURNITURE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- AMANA SOCIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- FLOYD''S REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 081N09W28CAA 1958Middle Amana NorthNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 081N09W28CAD 1958Middle Amana SouthNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 081N10W36CCCC 02092 1945South Amana (13) 12Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 080N10W01BBBA 20253 1968South Amana 1Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 081N10W35DAAD 1979South Amana (12) 120Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 081N09W28DCB 01729 1943Middle Amana 2Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from High Amana'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 High Amana.
Total Sites
231
within ~10 miles of High Amana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of High Amana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of High Amana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around High Amana, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 136 sites within ~10 miles of High Amana. 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 High Amana
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 High Amana average
Your land is one point inside High Amana
Everything above resolves to High Amana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 245 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 town 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 High Amana Average
High Amana Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across High Amana
- ●One soil character for all of High Amana
- ●Frost dates read at High Amana's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not High Amana's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in High Amana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in High Amana, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that High Amana averages can't show:
We read public map data around High Amana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the High Amana average
How we know this about High Amana
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at High Amana’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 High Amana
When does frost risk typically end in High Amana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in High Amana typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in High Amana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in High Amana typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in High Amana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, High Amana sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 7, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in High Amana?
The federal record around High Amana is a meaningful one — 231 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (136), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in High Amana?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at High Amana's scale — its 5b band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of High Amana'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 High Amana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at High Amana's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 245 acres it covers and 231 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- High Amana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- High Amana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 21 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 231 documented contamination sites on the federal record near High Amana, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- High Amana's boundary and the 245 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at High Amana'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 High Amana's 245 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among High Amana's 245 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of High Amana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 245 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 High Amana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHigh Amana sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides