Rochester, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Rochester, 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 Rochester 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 Rochester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rochester — the short answer
Rochester, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 196 days between hard freezes, across 609 acres of town.
- 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 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~196
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 609 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 Rochester's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rochester's 196-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rochester
Each reading below is measured for Rochester itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRochester runs about 196 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
MeasuredRochester 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 Rochester is in
Rochester sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rochester's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cedar County.
What Grows in Rochester
Every plant below cleared Rochester's own zone 5b and its 196-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rochester?
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 25 — 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 Rochester
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rochester. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 6600000050 Cedar River at RochesterNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 6601250020 Cedar River at RochesterNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 6602500020 Cedar River at RochesterNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 6603750020 Cedar River at RochesterNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 080N03W35CCANitrate · 1.5 mi
- 080N03W35BDNitrate · 1.7 mi
- KUM & GO #267Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- PILOT TRAVEL CENTER #496Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- LEONARD EICKELBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- BENNETT FARM EQUIPMENT DBA COVE EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- THE COVE RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- UP ELECTRONICSBrownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rochester'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 Rochester.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Rochester
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rochester
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rochester
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rochester, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Rochester. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Rochester
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 Rochester average
Your land is one point inside Rochester
Everything above resolves to Rochester as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 609 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 Rochester Average
Rochester Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rochester
- ●One soil character for all of Rochester
- ●Frost dates read at Rochester's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rochester's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rochester
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rochester, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rochester averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rochester — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rochester average
How we know this about Rochester
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 Rochester’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 Rochester
When does frost risk typically end in Rochester?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rochester 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 Rochester?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rochester 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 196 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rochester?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rochester sees about 196 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 11, about 161 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rochester?
The federal record around Rochester shows 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Rochester?
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 Rochester's scale — its 5b band and its 196-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rochester'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 Rochester’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rochester's own scale — its own ~196-day season between 28°F freezes, the 609 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rochester's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rochester's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 25 and the ~196-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rochester, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rochester's boundary and the 609 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~196-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rochester'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 Rochester's 609 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cedar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cedar 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 Cedar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rochester's 609 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rochester you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 609 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Rochester-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRochester sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides