Jesup, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Jesup, 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 Jesup 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 Jesup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jesup — the short answer
Jesup, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~185
- 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 Jesup's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jesup's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jesup
Each reading below is measured for Jesup itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJesup runs about 185 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
MeasuredJesup 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 Jesup is in
Jesup sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Jesup's own centroid rather than borrowed from Buchanan County.
What Grows in Jesup
Every plant below cleared Jesup's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jesup?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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 Jesup
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jesup. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCHANAN COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- B & B FARM STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- J & J SINCLAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MEMBERS MUTUAL OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FROST OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AMERICAN PROTEIN CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JESUP HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JESUP COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1378Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- KWIK STAR #713Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- 089N10W31AAB 09382 1957Jesup 2Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- BERTCH CABINET MFG, INC - LEGACY DIVISION - JESUPBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jesup'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 Jesup.
Total Sites
138
within ~10 miles of Jesup
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jesup
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jesup
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Jesup
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 Jesup average
Your land is one point inside Jesup
Everything above resolves to Jesup 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 Jesup Average
Jesup Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Jesup
- ●One soil character for all of Jesup
- ●Frost dates read at Jesup's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jesup's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jesup
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jesup, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jesup averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jesup — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jesup average
How we know this about Jesup
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 Jesup’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 Jesup
When does frost risk typically end in Jesup?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jesup typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Jesup?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jesup 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jesup?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jesup sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 4, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jesup?
The federal record around Jesup shows 138 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (78), 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 Jesup?
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 Jesup's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jesup'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 Jesup’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jesup's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,178 acres it covers and 138 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jesup's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jesup's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 18 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 138 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jesup, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jesup's boundary and the 1,178 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jesup'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 Jesup's 1,178 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Buchanan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Buchanan 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 Buchanan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jesup's 1,178 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jesup you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,178 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 Jesup-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaJesup sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides