Kirkville, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Kirkville, 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 Kirkville 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 Kirkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kirkville — the short answer
Kirkville, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 360 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 360 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 Kirkville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kirkville's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kirkville
Each reading below is measured for Kirkville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKirkville runs about 203 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKirkville 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 Kirkville is in
Kirkville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kirkville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wapello County is mostly Central Irregular Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Kirkville
Every plant below cleared Kirkville's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kirkville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Kirkville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kirkville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JMJ SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- IPL - OTTUMWA GENERATING STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- IPL - OTTUMWA GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- C & C MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- 074N14W21ADDA 11230 1959Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- INDIAN HILLS COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- MOOG AUTOMOTIVE OTTUMWABrownfields · 4.3 mi
- MOOG AUTOMOTIVE OTTUMWAToxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZOTTBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- ITC MIDWEST - OTTUMWA GENERATIONBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- OTTUMWA / WAPELLO COUNTY SANITARY LANDFILLBrownfields · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kirkville'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 Kirkville.
Total Sites
197
within ~10 miles of Kirkville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kirkville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kirkville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Kirkville
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 Kirkville average
Your land is one point inside Kirkville
Everything above resolves to Kirkville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 360 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 Kirkville Average
Kirkville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kirkville
- ●One soil character for all of Kirkville
- ●Frost dates read at Kirkville's scale: Apr 8 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kirkville's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kirkville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kirkville, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kirkville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kirkville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kirkville average
How we know this about Kirkville
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 Kirkville’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 Kirkville
When does frost risk typically end in Kirkville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kirkville typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Kirkville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kirkville typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kirkville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kirkville sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 14, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kirkville?
The federal record around Kirkville is a meaningful one — 197 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), 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 Kirkville?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kirkville's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kirkville'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 Kirkville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kirkville's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 360 acres it covers and 197 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kirkville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kirkville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Oct 28 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 197 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kirkville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kirkville's boundary and the 360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kirkville sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kirkville's 360 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wapello County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wapello 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 Wapello County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kirkville's 360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kirkville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 360 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 Kirkville-wide figureread your own land →