Keota, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keota, 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 Keota 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 Keota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keota — the short answer
Keota, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 495 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 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 495 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 Keota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keota's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keota
Each reading below is measured for Keota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeota runs about 197 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
MeasuredKeota 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 Keota is in
Keota sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Keota's own centroid rather than borrowed from Keokuk County.
What Grows in Keota
Every plant below cleared Keota's own zone 5b and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keota?
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 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Keota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAGOS ACRES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SHELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- J & M OIL & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- IDEAL READY MIX CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GRETTER MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- FAGEN ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MAYERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BROADWAY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RAY-MAN INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- 076N10W25ACCA 01794 1943Keota 2Nitrate · 1700 ft
- 076N10W25ACDA 11764 1960Keota 3Nitrate · 1700 ft
- COUNTY LINE MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keota'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 Keota.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keota, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Keota. 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 Keota
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 Keota average
Your land is one point inside Keota
Everything above resolves to Keota as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 495 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 Keota Average
Keota Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Keota
- ●One soil character for all of Keota
- ●Frost dates read at Keota's scale: Apr 10 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keota's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keota, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keota average
How we know this about Keota
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 Keota’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 Keota
When does frost risk typically end in Keota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keota 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 Keota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keota typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keota sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 10, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keota?
The federal record around Keota shows 123 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Keota?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keota's scale — its 5b band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keota'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 Keota’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keota's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 495 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keota's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Oct 24 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keota, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keota's boundary and the 495 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keota'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 Keota's 495 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Keokuk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Keokuk 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 Keokuk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keota's 495 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 495 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Keota-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaKeota sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides