Schaller, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Schaller, 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 Schaller 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 Schaller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Schaller — the short answer
Schaller, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 806 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- 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
- ~187
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 806 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 Schaller's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Schaller's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Schaller
Each reading below is measured for Schaller itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSchaller 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
MeasuredSchaller 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 Schaller is in
Schaller sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Schaller's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sac County.
What Grows in Schaller
Every plant below cleared Schaller'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 Schaller?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Schaller
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Schaller. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 089N38W26ACDC 09380 1957Schaller 2Nitrate · 300 ft
- BODE''S SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- SAC COUNTY ENGINEERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WEST SAC AG CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SWANSON FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CITY OF SCHALLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- THE R & M FEED MILL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PYLE TRUCK LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PYLE TRUCK LINE INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- SCHALLER IMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- M D WELDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SCHALLER FERTILIZER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Schaller'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 Schaller.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Schaller
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Schaller
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Schaller
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Schaller, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Schaller. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Schaller
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 Schaller average
Your land is one point inside Schaller
Everything above resolves to Schaller as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 806 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 Schaller Average
Schaller Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Schaller
- ●One soil character for all of Schaller
- ●Frost dates read at Schaller's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Schaller's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Schaller
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Schaller, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Schaller averages can't show:
We read public map data around Schaller — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Schaller average
How we know this about Schaller
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 Schaller’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 Schaller
When does frost risk typically end in Schaller?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Schaller typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Schaller?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Schaller 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 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Schaller?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Schaller sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 7, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Schaller?
The federal record around Schaller shows 114 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate 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 Schaller?
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 Schaller's scale — its 5a band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Schaller'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 Schaller’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Schaller's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 806 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Schaller's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Schaller's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 21 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Schaller, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Schaller's boundary and the 806 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 Schaller'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 Schaller's 806 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 Schaller's 806 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Schaller you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 806 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Schaller-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSchaller sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides