Rhodes, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Rhodes, 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 Rhodes 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 Rhodes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rhodes — the short answer
Rhodes, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 649 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 649 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 Rhodes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rhodes's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rhodes
Each reading below is measured for Rhodes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRhodes runs about 192 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
MeasuredRhodes 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 Rhodes is in
Rhodes sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rhodes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Rhodes
Every plant below cleared Rhodes's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rhodes?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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 Rhodes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rhodes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 082N20W09CADC 05760 1952Rhodes 1Nitrate · 1300 ft
- ROYCE J FICHTNER PEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MARSHALL COUNTY MAINTENANCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- HARVESTER GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- JUEL TRUCK LINES INCBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- 082N19W06ACCB 00908 1939Melbourne 1Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- VERN IMP & REPAIRBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- MILLER OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- CMC REAL ESTATE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 082N19W06DAC Melbourne SchoolNitrate · 4.3 mi
- IOWA RIVER FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rhodes'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 Rhodes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rhodes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rhodes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rhodes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Rhodes. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Rhodes
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 Rhodes average
Your land is one point inside Rhodes
Everything above resolves to Rhodes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 649 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 Rhodes Average
Rhodes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rhodes
- ●One soil character for all of Rhodes
- ●Frost dates read at Rhodes's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rhodes's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rhodes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rhodes, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rhodes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rhodes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rhodes average
How we know this about Rhodes
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 Rhodes’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 Rhodes
When does frost risk typically end in Rhodes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodes typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Rhodes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rhodes typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rhodes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rhodes sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 7, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rhodes?
The federal record around Rhodes shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rhodes?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rhodes's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rhodes'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 Rhodes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rhodes's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 649 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rhodes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rhodes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 21 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rhodes, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rhodes's boundary and the 649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rhodes'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 Rhodes's 649 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rhodes's 649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rhodes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 649 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Rhodes-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRhodes sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides