Moulton, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, blueberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Moulton, 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 Moulton 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 Moulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moulton — the short answer
Moulton, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 638 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- 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
- ~205
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 638 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 Moulton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moulton's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moulton
Each reading below is measured for Moulton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoulton runs about 205 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
MeasuredMoulton 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 Moulton is in
Moulton sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Moulton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Appanoose County.
What Grows in Moulton
Every plant below cleared Moulton's own zone 5b and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moulton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Moulton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moulton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIKES D XUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- MOULTON GAS & WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- 068N16W15DDAD 12035 1961MoultonNitrate · 500 ft
- DANIELS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GAS N MORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MOULTON-UDELL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ITC TRANSMISSION - MIDWEST APPANOOSE COUNTYBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Drill HoleMining · 3.2 mi
- 069N16W16DA 1920Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 068N16W15ACC 02568 1946Moulton Test 1Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- C & M SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Orill HoleMining · 8.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moulton'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 Moulton.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Moulton
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moulton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moulton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Moulton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Moulton — Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites) and Nitrate (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Moulton
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 Moulton average
Your land is one point inside Moulton
Everything above resolves to Moulton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 638 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 Moulton Average
Moulton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Moulton
- ●One soil character for all of Moulton
- ●Frost dates read at Moulton's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moulton's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moulton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moulton, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moulton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moulton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moulton average
How we know this about Moulton
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 Moulton’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 Moulton
When does frost risk typically end in Moulton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moulton typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Moulton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moulton 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 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moulton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moulton sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moulton?
The federal record around Moulton is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (10), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Moulton?
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 Moulton's scale — its 5b band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moulton'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 Moulton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moulton's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 638 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moulton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moulton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moulton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moulton's boundary and the 638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Moulton's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moulton's 638 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Appanoose County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Appanoose 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 Appanoose County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moulton's 638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moulton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 638 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 Moulton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaMoulton sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides