Rippey, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Rippey, 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 Rippey 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 Rippey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rippey — the short answer
Rippey, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 554 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 554 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 5a is Rippey's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rippey's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rippey
Each reading below is measured for Rippey itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRippey runs about 190 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
MeasuredRippey sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Rippey is in
Rippey sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rippey's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Rippey
Every plant below cleared Rippey's own zone 5a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rippey?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Rippey
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rippey. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K D STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SPARKY''S ONE STOP #15Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- 082N29W11BBCD 00026 1922Rippey 1Nitrate · 700 ft
- COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RIPPEY COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- 082N29W11CDB 05862 1945Rippey 3Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 082N29W07CANitrate · 3.6 mi
- 082N29W18DBAA 26749 1982IGS & USGS WC-117Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- 082N29W18CAAA 26748 1982IGS & USGS WC-116Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 082N29W18CBAA 26747 1982IGS & USGS WC-115Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- BOONE COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 083N30W36DC Squirrel Hollow Park 1Nitrate · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rippey'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 Rippey.
Total Sites
129
within ~10 miles of Rippey
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rippey
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rippey
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rippey, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rippey — Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites) and Nitrate (34 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rippey
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 Rippey average
Your land is one point inside Rippey
Everything above resolves to Rippey as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 554 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 Rippey Average
Rippey Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rippey
- ●One soil character for all of Rippey
- ●Frost dates read at Rippey's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rippey's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rippey
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rippey, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rippey averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rippey — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rippey average
How we know this about Rippey
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 Rippey’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 Rippey
When does frost risk typically end in Rippey?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rippey typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Rippey?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rippey typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rippey?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rippey sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 6, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rippey?
The federal record around Rippey shows 129 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rippey?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rippey's scale — its 5a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rippey'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 Rippey’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rippey's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 554 acres it covers and 129 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rippey's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rippey's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 20 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 129 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rippey, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rippey's boundary and the 554 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rippey'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 Rippey's 554 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rippey's 554 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rippey you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 554 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 Rippey-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRippey sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides