Pella, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pella, 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 Pella 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 Pella — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pella — the short answer
Pella, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 203 days between hard freezes, across 6K 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~203
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Pella's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pella's 203-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pella
Each reading below is measured for Pella itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPella runs about 203 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
MeasuredPella 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 Pella is in
Pella sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pella's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Pella
Every plant below cleared Pella's own zone 5b and its 203-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pella?
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 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 26 — 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 Pella
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pella. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER DX STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- VISTA STORES #1014Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CONTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CASEYS GENERAL STORE 3566Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PELLA PRINTING CO INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- BROM AUTO SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- NORTH SHORE BOATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ARNOLD MOTOR SUPPLYBrownfields · 1100 ft
- MAX L KANE INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- CITY OF PELLA AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DOWS AUTO BODYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pella'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 Pella.
Total Sites
203
within ~10 miles of Pella
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pella
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pella
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pella, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 90 sites within ~10 miles of Pella. 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 Pella
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 Pella average
Your land is one point inside Pella
Everything above resolves to Pella as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Pella Average
Pella Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pella
- ●One soil character for all of Pella
- ●Frost dates read at Pella's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pella's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pella
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pella, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pella averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pella — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pella average
How we know this about Pella
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 Pella’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 Pella
When does frost risk typically end in Pella?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pella 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 Pella?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pella typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 203 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pella?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pella sees about 203 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 12, about 168 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pella?
The federal record around Pella is a meaningful one — 203 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (90), 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 Pella?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pella's scale — its 5b band and its 203-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pella'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 Pella’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pella's own scale — its own ~203-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,980 acres it covers and 203 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pella's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pella's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 26 and the ~203-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 203 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pella, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pella's boundary and the 5,980 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~203-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pella'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 Pella's 5,980 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pella's 5,980 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pella you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,980 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 Pella-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaPella sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.