Indianola, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Indianola, 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 Indianola 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 Indianola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Indianola — the short answer
Indianola, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 195 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 11
- 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
- ~195
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Indianola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Indianola's 195-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Indianola
Each reading below is measured for Indianola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndianola runs about 195 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
MeasuredIndianola 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 Indianola is in
Indianola sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Indianola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Warren County.
What Grows in Indianola
Every plant below cleared Indianola's own zone 5b and its 195-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Indianola?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 11 (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. 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 Indianola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Indianola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIMPSON COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SIMPSON COLLEGEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- WARREN CO OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- INDIANOLA BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1500 ft
- INDIANOLA MUNICIPAL UTILITIESBrownfields · 1500 ft
- STREET''S COASTAL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- INDIANOLA COMM SCHOOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- U S WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WOODFORD PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LAVERTY ELEV #1 LAVERTY FIELD - #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NASH FIELD INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JIFFY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Indianola'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 Indianola.
Total Sites
211
within ~10 miles of Indianola
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Indianola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Indianola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Indianola, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Indianola — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (88 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Indianola
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 Indianola average
Your land is one point inside Indianola
Everything above resolves to Indianola as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Indianola Average
Indianola Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Indianola
- ●One soil character for all of Indianola
- ●Frost dates read at Indianola's scale: Apr 11 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Indianola's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Indianola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Indianola, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Indianola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Indianola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Indianola average
How we know this about Indianola
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 Indianola’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 Indianola
When does frost risk typically end in Indianola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Indianola typically lands around Apr 11, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Indianola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Indianola 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 195 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Indianola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Indianola sees about 195 frost-free days — roughly Apr 11 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 2 to Oct 9, about 160 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Indianola?
The federal record around Indianola is a meaningful one — 211 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Indianola?
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 Indianola's scale — its 5b band and its 195-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Indianola'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 Indianola’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Indianola's own scale — its own ~195-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,318 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Indianola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Indianola's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 11 and Oct 23 and the ~195-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Indianola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Indianola's boundary and the 7,318 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~195-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Indianola'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 Indianola's 7,318 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Warren County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Warren 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 Warren County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Indianola's 7,318 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Indianola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,318 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Indianola-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaIndianola sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides