Sac City, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sac City, 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 Sac City 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 Sac City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sac City — the short answer
Sac City, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Sac City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sac City's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sac City
Each reading below is measured for Sac City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSac City runs about 187 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
MeasuredSac City 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 Sac City is in
Sac City sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sac City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sac County.
What Grows in Sac City
Every plant below cleared Sac City's own zone 5a and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sac City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Sac City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sac City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAC COMMUNITY SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- STANDARD OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1331Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SAC COMM. SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SAC JR-SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 800 ft
- SAC CITY MUNICIPAL BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SIMPLOT SOILBUILDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SAC CITY AIRPORT COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SAC CITY DOT MAINTENANCE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- DARRELL JOHNSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SAC CITY RURAL ELEC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SAC COUNTY ENGINEERS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sac City'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 Sac City.
Total Sites
152
within ~10 miles of Sac City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sac City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sac City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sac City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sac City — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sac City
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 Sac City average
Your land is one point inside Sac City
Everything above resolves to Sac City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Sac City Average
Sac City Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Sac City
- ●One soil character for all of Sac City
- ●Frost dates read at Sac City's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sac City's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sac City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sac City, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sac City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sac City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sac City average
How we know this about Sac City
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 Sac City’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 Sac City
When does frost risk typically end in Sac City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sac City typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Sac City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sac City 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sac City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sac City sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 6, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sac City?
The federal record around Sac City is a meaningful one — 152 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sac City?
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 Sac City's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sac City'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 Sac City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sac City's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,133 acres it covers and 152 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sac City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sac City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 20 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 152 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sac City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sac City's boundary and the 3,133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sac City'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 Sac City's 3,133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sac County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sac 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 Sac County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sac City's 3,133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sac City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,133 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 Sac City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSac City sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.