Stout, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Stout, 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 Stout 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 Stout — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stout — the short answer
Stout, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 187 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 187 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 Stout's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stout's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stout
Each reading below is measured for Stout itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStout runs about 186 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
MeasuredStout 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 Stout is in
Stout sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Stout's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grundy County.
What Grows in Stout
Every plant below cleared Stout's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stout?
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 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 19 — 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 Stout
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stout. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMER COOPERATIVE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- GRUNDY COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- HAROLD RADEMAKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 089N16W14BB 08098 1956Stout 1Nitrate · 350 ft
- STOUT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- KUM & GO #504Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- LARRYS WELDINGBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 089N16W07CCCB 14108 1962Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 089N17W12DDDA 1962Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 090N16W31DCB 1989Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 089N16W19CBB 01611 1942Van Haven 2Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- 089N16W31AAA 04025 1945Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stout'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 Stout.
Total Sites
113
within ~10 miles of Stout
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stout
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stout
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stout, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Stout. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Stout
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 Stout average
Your land is one point inside Stout
Everything above resolves to Stout as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 187 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 Stout Average
Stout Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Stout
- ●One soil character for all of Stout
- ●Frost dates read at Stout's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stout's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stout
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stout, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stout averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stout — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stout average
How we know this about Stout
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 Stout’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 Stout
When does frost risk typically end in Stout?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stout 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 Stout?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stout typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stout?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stout sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stout?
The federal record around Stout shows 113 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), 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 Stout?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stout's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stout'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 Stout’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stout's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 187 acres it covers and 113 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stout's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stout's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 113 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stout, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stout's boundary and the 187 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stout'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 Stout's 187 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grundy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grundy 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 Grundy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stout's 187 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stout you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 187 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 Stout-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaStout sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides