Protivin, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Protivin, 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 Protivin 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 Protivin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Protivin — the short answer
Protivin, Iowa: USDA zone 4b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 282 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 282 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 4b is Protivin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Protivin's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Protivin
Each reading below is measured for Protivin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProtivin runs about 177 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
MeasuredProtivin sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Protivin is in
Protivin sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Protivin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Howard County.
What Grows in Protivin
Every plant below cleared Protivin's own zone 4b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Protivin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Protivin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Protivin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAMS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- FARMERS MILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 097N11W13DBBC 04001 1950Protivin 2Nitrate · 700 ft
- LUKES PLUMBING & ELECTRIC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FAST MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FARMERS MILL INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 098N11W15CDB 12099 1960Nitrate · 6.2 mi
- 097N09W19CADA 11755 1960Spillville 2Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- MAIN STREET MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- WISCONSIN DAIRIES COOPERATIVEToxics Release Inventory · 6.9 mi
- TURKEY VALLEY COMMUNITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Protivin'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 Protivin.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Protivin
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Protivin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Protivin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Protivin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Protivin. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Protivin
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 Protivin average
Your land is one point inside Protivin
Everything above resolves to Protivin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 282 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 Protivin Average
Protivin Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Protivin
- ●One soil character for all of Protivin
- ●Frost dates read at Protivin's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Protivin's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Protivin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Protivin, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Protivin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Protivin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Protivin average
How we know this about Protivin
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 Protivin’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 Protivin
When does frost risk typically end in Protivin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Protivin typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Protivin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Protivin typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Protivin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Protivin sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 30, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Protivin?
The federal record around Protivin is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Protivin?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Protivin's scale — its 4b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Protivin'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 Protivin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Protivin's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 282 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Protivin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Protivin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 14 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Protivin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Protivin's boundary and the 282 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Protivin'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 Protivin's 282 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Howard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Howard 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 Howard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Protivin's 282 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Protivin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 282 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 Protivin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaProtivin sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides