Solon, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Solon, 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 Solon 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 Solon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Solon — the short answer
Solon, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- 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 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Solon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Solon's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Solon
Each reading below is measured for Solon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSolon runs about 191 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
MeasuredSolon 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 Solon is in
Solon sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Solon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Johnson County.
What Grows in Solon
Every plant below cleared Solon's own zone 5b and its 191-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Solon?
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 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 21 — 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 Solon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Solon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 081N06W24CAC 1929Solon 1Nitrate · 500 ft
- MARKS AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- FORMER BOBS SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CASEY''S GENERAL STORE 1695Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LAKE MACBRIDE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- LAKE MACBRIDE MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BERNS NIBBLE NOOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SOLON COMMUNITY SCHOOL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RJ''S EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FRANK J MEYERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SOLON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1900 ft
- JOHNSON COUNTY SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Solon'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 Solon.
Total Sites
492
within ~10 miles of Solon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Solon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Solon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Solon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 264 sites within ~10 miles of Solon. 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 Solon
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 Solon average
Your land is one point inside Solon
Everything above resolves to Solon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Solon Average
Solon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Solon
- ●One soil character for all of Solon
- ●Frost dates read at Solon's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Solon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Solon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Solon, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Solon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Solon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Solon average
How we know this about Solon
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 Solon’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 Solon
When does frost risk typically end in Solon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Solon 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 Solon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Solon 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 191 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Solon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Solon sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 7, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Solon?
The federal record around Solon is a meaningful one — 492 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (264), the nearest Nitrate 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 Solon?
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 Solon's scale — its 5b band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Solon'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 Solon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Solon's own scale — its own ~191-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,023 acres it covers and 492 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Solon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Solon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 21 and the ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 492 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Solon, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Solon's boundary and the 1,023 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Solon'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 Solon's 1,023 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Solon's 1,023 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Solon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,023 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 Solon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaSolon sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides