Ida Grove, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Ida Grove, 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 Ida Grove 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 Ida Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ida Grove — the short answer
Ida Grove, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Ida Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ida Grove's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ida Grove
Each reading below is measured for Ida Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIda Grove runs about 182 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
MeasuredIda Grove 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 Ida Grove is in
Ida Grove sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ida Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ida County.
What Grows in Ida Grove
Every plant below cleared Ida Grove's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ida Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Ida Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ida Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 087N40W14CCAA 00275 1939Nitrate · 450 ft
- FRONTIER COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- WOODS AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- IDA GROVE MUNC AIRPOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FARMLAND IND FEED MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ROGERS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- IDA GROVE GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- IDOT MAINT GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CULLIGAN SOFT WATERUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- KRAGER TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- UNITED BUILDERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- IDA GROVE MAINT SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ida Grove'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 Ida Grove.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Ida Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ida Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ida Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ida Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ida Grove — Nitrate (56 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Ida Grove
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 Ida Grove average
Your land is one point inside Ida Grove
Everything above resolves to Ida Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ida Grove Average
Ida Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ida Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Ida Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Ida Grove's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ida Grove's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ida Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ida Grove, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ida Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ida Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ida Grove average
How we know this about Ida Grove
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 Ida Grove’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 Ida Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Ida Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ida Grove typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ida Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ida Grove typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ida Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ida Grove sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ida Grove?
The federal record around Ida Grove shows 128 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Nitrate 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 Ida Grove?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ida Grove's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ida Grove'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 Ida Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ida Grove's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,405 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ida Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ida Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ida Grove, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ida Grove's boundary and the 1,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ida Grove'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 Ida Grove's 1,405 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ida County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ida 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 Ida County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ida Grove's 1,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ida Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,405 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Ida Grove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaIda Grove sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides