Middle Amana, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Middle Amana, 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 Middle Amana 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 Middle Amana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Middle Amana — the short answer
Middle Amana, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 622 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 622 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 Middle Amana's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Middle Amana's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Middle Amana
Each reading below is measured for Middle Amana itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiddle Amana runs about 191 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
MeasuredMiddle Amana 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 Middle Amana is in
Middle Amana sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Middle Amana's own centroid rather than borrowed from Iowa County.
What Grows in Middle Amana
Every plant below cleared Middle Amana's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Middle Amana?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Middle Amana
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Middle Amana. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 081N09W28CAA 1958Middle Amana NorthNitrate · 500 ft
- AMANA SOCIETY SERVICE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- AMANA REFRIGERATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 081N09W28CAD 1958Middle Amana SouthNitrate · 1100 ft
- 081N09W28DBDB 1967Middle Amana 8Nitrate · 1400 ft
- WHIRLPOOL CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- WHIRLPOOL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- 081N09W28DCB Refrig Plant 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 081N09W28DCB 01729 1943Middle Amana 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 081N09W28DCB Refrig Plant 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 081N09W28DCB 01728 Middle Amana 1Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 081N09W28DCBNitrate · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Middle Amana'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 Middle Amana.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Middle Amana
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Middle Amana
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Middle Amana
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Middle Amana, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 126 sites within ~10 miles of Middle Amana. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Middle Amana
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 Middle Amana average
Your land is one point inside Middle Amana
Everything above resolves to Middle Amana as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 622 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 town 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 Middle Amana Average
Middle Amana Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Middle Amana
- ●One soil character for all of Middle Amana
- ●Frost dates read at Middle Amana's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Middle Amana's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Middle Amana
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Middle Amana, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Middle Amana averages can't show:
We read public map data around Middle Amana — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Middle Amana average
How we know this about Middle Amana
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Middle Amana’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Middle Amana
When does frost risk typically end in Middle Amana?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Middle Amana typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Middle Amana?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Middle Amana typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Middle Amana?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Middle Amana sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 8, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Middle Amana?
The federal record around Middle Amana is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (126), the nearest Nitrate 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 Middle Amana?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Middle Amana's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Middle Amana'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 Middle Amana’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Middle Amana's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 622 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Middle Amana's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Middle Amana's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 22 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Middle Amana, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Middle Amana's boundary and the 622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Middle Amana'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 Middle Amana's 622 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Iowa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Iowa 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 Iowa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Middle Amana's 622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Middle Amana you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 622 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Middle Amana-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMiddle Amana sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides