Luana, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Luana, 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 Luana 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 Luana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Luana — the short answer
Luana, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 705 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 705 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 Luana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Luana's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Luana
Each reading below is measured for Luana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLuana 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
MeasuredLuana 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 Luana is in
Luana sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Luana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clayton County.
What Grows in Luana
Every plant below cleared Luana'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 Luana?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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 Luana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Luana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WAYLIN BUERGERBrownfields · 600 ft
- ITC MIDWEST - MONONABrownfields · 650 ft
- SWISS VALLEY FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LOWELLS ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- K & C FEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 095N05W09CBCB 09689 1958Luana 1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 095N05W05DDC 03108 1941LuanaNitrate · 2500 ft
- 095N05W09CCBB 08283 1957Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- SWISS VALLEY FARMS COOPERATIVEToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- UNITED COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- LUANA COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CITY OF MONONA WWTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Luana'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 Luana.
Total Sites
99
within ~10 miles of Luana
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Luana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Luana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Luana, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Luana. 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 Luana
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 Luana average
Your land is one point inside Luana
Everything above resolves to Luana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 705 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 Luana Average
Luana Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Luana
- ●One soil character for all of Luana
- ●Frost dates read at Luana's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Luana's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Luana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Luana, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Luana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Luana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Luana average
How we know this about Luana
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 Luana’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 Luana
When does frost risk typically end in Luana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Luana typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Luana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Luana typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Luana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Luana sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Luana?
The federal record around Luana shows 99 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Brownfields 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 Luana?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Luana's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Luana'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 Luana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Luana's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 705 acres it covers and 99 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Luana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Luana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 99 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Luana, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Luana's boundary and the 705 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 Luana's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Luana's 705 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clayton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clayton 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 Clayton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Luana's 705 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Luana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 705 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Luana-wide figureread your own land →
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