Humeston, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Humeston, 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 Humeston 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 Humeston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Humeston — the short answer
Humeston, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 399 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 399 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 Humeston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Humeston's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Humeston
Each reading below is measured for Humeston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHumeston runs about 196 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
MeasuredHumeston 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 Humeston is in
Humeston sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Humeston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wayne County.
What Grows in Humeston
Every plant below cleared Humeston's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Humeston?
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 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Humeston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Humeston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MORMON TRAIL COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1125Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- STREET TOWN & CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CITY OF HUMESTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RICHARD OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- STREET TOWN&COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RAES AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- VANDELL AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 070N23W28DC 1951Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 071N23W29DBA 20073 1967Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- DERBY SUPPLY CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 070N24W34BADA 03346 1948Garden Grove Test 2Nitrate · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Humeston'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 Humeston.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Humeston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Humeston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Humeston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Humeston. 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 Humeston
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 Humeston average
Your land is one point inside Humeston
Everything above resolves to Humeston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 399 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 Humeston Average
Humeston Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Humeston
- ●One soil character for all of Humeston
- ●Frost dates read at Humeston's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Humeston's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Humeston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Humeston, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Humeston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Humeston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Humeston average
How we know this about Humeston
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 Humeston’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 Humeston
When does frost risk typically end in Humeston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Humeston 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.
When is the first frost in Humeston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Humeston typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Humeston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Humeston sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 9, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Humeston?
The federal record around Humeston shows 45 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (30), 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 Humeston?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Humeston's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Humeston'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 Humeston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Humeston's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 399 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Humeston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Humeston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 23 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Humeston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Humeston's boundary and the 399 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Humeston's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Humeston's 399 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wayne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wayne 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 Wayne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Humeston's 399 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Humeston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 399 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 Humeston-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaHumeston sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides