Low Moor, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Low Moor, 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 Low Moor 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 Low Moor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Low Moor — the short answer
Low Moor, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 349 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 349 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 Low Moor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Low Moor's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Low Moor
Each reading below is measured for Low Moor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLow Moor runs about 196 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
MeasuredLow Moor 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 Low Moor is in
Low Moor sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Low Moor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clinton County.
What Grows in Low Moor
Every plant below cleared Low Moor's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Low Moor?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Low Moor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Low Moor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JT''S MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- CHRISTIANSENS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- DAHLEN TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 081N05E22DDD 1923Low Moor 1Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 081N05E22DDD 10742 1959Low Moor 2Nitrate · 1000 ft
- C & J SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CLINTON COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LOW MOOR AG SERVICE, INC. LOW MOOR NH3Brownfields · 1000 ft
- ILLOWA CULVERT & SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HERO BX CLINTONToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- CITY OF CLINTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 081N05E09CAD 1997NAWQANitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Low Moor'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 Low Moor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Low Moor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Low Moor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Low Moor, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Low Moor. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Low Moor
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 Low Moor average
Your land is one point inside Low Moor
Everything above resolves to Low Moor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 349 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 Low Moor Average
Low Moor Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Low Moor
- ●One soil character for all of Low Moor
- ●Frost dates read at Low Moor's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Low Moor's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Low Moor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Low Moor, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Low Moor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Low Moor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Low Moor average
How we know this about Low Moor
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 Low Moor’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 Low Moor
When does frost risk typically end in Low Moor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Low Moor typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Low Moor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Low Moor typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Low Moor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Low Moor sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Low Moor?
The federal record around Low Moor is a meaningful one — 377 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (186), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Low Moor?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Low Moor's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Low Moor'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 Low Moor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Low Moor's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 349 acres it covers and 377 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Low Moor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Low Moor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 377 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Low Moor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Low Moor's boundary and the 349 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Low Moor'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 Low Moor's 349 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clinton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clinton 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 Clinton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Low Moor's 349 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Low Moor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 349 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 Low Moor-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaLow Moor sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides