Plainview, 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 Plainview, 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 Plainview 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 Plainview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plainview — the short answer
Plainview, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 199 days between hard freezes, across 353 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~199
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 353 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 Plainview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plainview's 199-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plainview
Each reading below is measured for Plainview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlainview runs about 199 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
MeasuredPlainview 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 Plainview is in
Plainview sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Plainview's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Plainview
Every plant below cleared Plainview's own zone 5b and its 199-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plainview?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Plainview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plainview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER HANNAH''SUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 079N02E06ADCNitrate · 1.0 mi
- SCOTT CO SECONDARY ROADSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KELLER DIESEL & MACHINERY REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- IOWA 80 TRUCKSTOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTERS LLC #043Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- WILBERT W WULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- IOWA 80 TA TRUCKSTOPBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- IOWA 80 TRUCKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- DAVENPORT TRUCK PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- DAYBREAK 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #268Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plainview'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 Plainview.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Plainview
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plainview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plainview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plainview, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Plainview. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Plainview
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 Plainview average
Your land is one point inside Plainview
Everything above resolves to Plainview as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 353 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 Plainview Average
Plainview Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Plainview
- ●One soil character for all of Plainview
- ●Frost dates read at Plainview's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plainview's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plainview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plainview, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plainview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plainview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plainview average
How we know this about Plainview
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 Plainview’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 Plainview
When does frost risk typically end in Plainview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plainview typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Plainview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plainview typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 199 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plainview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plainview sees about 199 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 11, about 164 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plainview?
The federal record around Plainview shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Plainview?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plainview's scale — its 5b band and its 199-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plainview'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 Plainview’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plainview's own scale — its own ~199-day season between 28°F freezes, the 353 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plainview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plainview's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 25 and the ~199-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plainview, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plainview's boundary and the 353 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~199-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plainview'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 Plainview's 353 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plainview's 353 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plainview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 353 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Plainview-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaPlainview sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.