Plano, 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.
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 Plano, 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 Plano 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 Plano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plano — the short answer
Plano, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 200 days between hard freezes, across 360 acres of city.
- 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 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~200
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 360 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 Plano's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plano's 200-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plano
Each reading below is measured for Plano itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlano runs about 200 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
MeasuredPlano 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 Plano is in
Plano sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Plano's own centroid rather than borrowed from Appanoose County.
What Grows in Plano
Every plant below cleared Plano's own zone 5b and its 200-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plano?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Plano
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plano. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Drill HoleMining · 5.0 mi
- MCDANIELS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- MYSTIC MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- MCVEIGH D XUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- YOUNG D XUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- SOUTHFORK MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- 068N20W24AAB 19721 1967Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- 070N20W25CBDD 01414 1944Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- JOHNSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- SEYMOUR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- SEYMOUR CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- BOB''S FOOD MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plano'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 Plano.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Plano
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plano
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plano
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Plano
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 Plano average
Your land is one point inside Plano
Everything above resolves to Plano as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 360 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 Plano Average
Plano Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Plano
- ●One soil character for all of Plano
- ●Frost dates read at Plano's scale: Apr 9 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plano's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plano
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plano, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plano averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plano average
How we know this about Plano
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 Plano’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 Plano
When does frost risk typically end in Plano?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plano 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 Plano?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plano 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 200 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plano?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plano sees about 200 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 12, about 165 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plano?
The federal record around Plano is a meaningful one — 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (49), the nearest Mining record about 5.0 miles 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 Plano?
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 Plano's scale — its 5b band and its 200-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plano'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 Plano’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plano's own scale — its own ~200-day season between 28°F freezes, the 360 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plano's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plano's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Oct 26 and the ~200-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plano, the closest Mining record about 5.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plano's boundary and the 360 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~200-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plano's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plano's 360 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 Plano's 360 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plano you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 360 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 5.0 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 Plano-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaPlano sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides