Ireton, 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 Ireton, 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 Ireton 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 Ireton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ireton — the short answer
Ireton, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 653 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 653 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 Ireton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ireton's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ireton
Each reading below is measured for Ireton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIreton runs about 178 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
MeasuredIreton 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 Ireton is in
Ireton sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ireton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sioux County.
What Grows in Ireton
Every plant below cleared Ireton's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ireton?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Ireton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ireton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 094N46W07ACD 00343 1935Ireton 2Nitrate · 800 ft
- SINKEY GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MAIN STREET AUTOBODY & GRAPHICSBrownfields · 900 ft
- EISMA BROS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- WEST SIOUX COMM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- IRETON BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KENT NUTRITION GROUP INCToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- 094N46W07DDAB 40462 1967Ireton 4Nitrate · 2400 ft
- 094N46W07DAD 02310 1946Ireton 3Nitrate · 2500 ft
- SUPER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- COOP GAS & OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ireton'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 Ireton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ireton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ireton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ireton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ireton — PFAS (3 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Ireton
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 Ireton average
Your land is one point inside Ireton
Everything above resolves to Ireton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 653 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 Ireton Average
Ireton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Ireton
- ●One soil character for all of Ireton
- ●Frost dates read at Ireton's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ireton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ireton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ireton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ireton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ireton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ireton average
How we know this about Ireton
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 Ireton’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 Ireton
When does frost risk typically end in Ireton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ireton typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Ireton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ireton typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ireton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ireton sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ireton?
The federal record around Ireton is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Ireton?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ireton's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ireton'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 Ireton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ireton's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 653 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ireton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ireton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ireton, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ireton's boundary and the 653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ireton'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 Ireton's 653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sioux County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sioux 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 Sioux County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ireton's 653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ireton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Ireton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaIreton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides