Olin, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Olin, 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 Olin 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 Olin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olin — the short answer
Olin, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 654 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 654 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 Olin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olin's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olin
Each reading below is measured for Olin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlin runs about 189 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
MeasuredOlin 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 Olin is in
Olin sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Olin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jones County.
What Grows in Olin
Every plant below cleared Olin's own zone 5a and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Olin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER TANNERS FSUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- TAYLOR MOTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- SUNDSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ARDITH K SMITH FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- WENDLING QUARRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- OLIN CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- L & D DIST INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OLIN SOIL & FEED SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PURINA MILLS INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- 083N03W13BA 1910Olin 1Nitrate · 2400 ft
- RIVER VALLEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JONES COUNTY MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olin'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 Olin.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Olin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olin, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Olin. 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 Olin
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 Olin average
Your land is one point inside Olin
Everything above resolves to Olin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 654 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 Olin Average
Olin Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Olin
- ●One soil character for all of Olin
- ●Frost dates read at Olin's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olin's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olin, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olin average
How we know this about Olin
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 Olin’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 Olin
When does frost risk typically end in Olin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olin 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 Olin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olin typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olin sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 6, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olin?
The federal record around Olin shows 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (61), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Olin?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olin's scale — its 5a band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olin'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 Olin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Olin's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 654 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 20 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olin's boundary and the 654 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olin'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 Olin's 654 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jones County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jones 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 Jones County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olin's 654 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 654 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 Olin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaOlin sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides