Rossie, 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 Rossie, 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 Rossie 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 Rossie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rossie — the short answer
Rossie, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 92 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 92 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 Rossie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rossie's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rossie
Each reading below is measured for Rossie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRossie runs about 182 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
MeasuredRossie 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 Rossie is in
Rossie sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Rossie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Rossie
Every plant below cleared Rossie's own zone 5a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rossie?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Rossie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rossie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YOUNGLUTH SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- THE ROSSIE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PETERSON SIGNS & EARTH MOVINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Not KnownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 095N37W34CBC 11287 1959Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 094N37W24ADD 08465 1956Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- JONES FARMS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- SILVER MINNOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- CLAY CENTRAL COMM. SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- CARGILL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- 095N38W12BCAB 1966Royal 2Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 095N38W12BBB 00364 1935RoyalNitrate · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rossie'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 Rossie.
Total Sites
171
within ~10 miles of Rossie
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rossie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rossie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rossie, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 50 sites within ~10 miles of Rossie. 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 Rossie
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 Rossie average
Your land is one point inside Rossie
Everything above resolves to Rossie as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 92 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 Rossie Average
Rossie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Rossie
- ●One soil character for all of Rossie
- ●Frost dates read at Rossie's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rossie's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rossie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rossie, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rossie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rossie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rossie average
How we know this about Rossie
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 Rossie’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 Rossie
When does frost risk typically end in Rossie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rossie typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Rossie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rossie typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rossie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rossie sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 4, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rossie?
The federal record around Rossie shows 171 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), 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 Rossie?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rossie's scale — its 5a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rossie'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 Rossie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rossie's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 92 acres it covers and 171 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rossie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rossie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 18 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 171 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rossie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rossie's boundary and the 92 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rossie'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 Rossie's 92 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rossie's 92 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rossie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 92 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 Rossie-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaRossie sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides