Vincent, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vincent, 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 Vincent 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 Vincent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vincent — the short answer
Vincent, Iowa: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 166 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 166 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 Vincent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vincent's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vincent
Each reading below is measured for Vincent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVincent runs about 185 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
MeasuredVincent 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 Vincent is in
Vincent sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Vincent's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webster County.
What Grows in Vincent
Every plant below cleared Vincent's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vincent?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 19 — 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 Vincent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vincent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WINFIELD UNITEDBrownfields · 450 ft
- 090N27W22CAD 02965 1947Nitrate · 500 ft
- NEW COOPERATIVE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- W & H COOPERATIVE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- N E W COOP INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- WEBSTER COUNTY MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- 090N27W22DCC 12537 1960Vincent 2Nitrate · 1400 ft
- 090N27W10BCBB 15523 1963Sharp 2Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 090N27W28BBA 02985 1947Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 090N27W15ABA 11262 1959Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 090N27W16ABB 03481 1948Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 090N27W09DC 09605 1957Nitrate · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vincent'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 Vincent.
Total Sites
284
within ~10 miles of Vincent
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vincent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vincent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vincent, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 86 sites within ~10 miles of Vincent. 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 Vincent
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 Vincent average
Your land is one point inside Vincent
Everything above resolves to Vincent as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 166 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 Vincent Average
Vincent Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Vincent
- ●One soil character for all of Vincent
- ●Frost dates read at Vincent's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vincent's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vincent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vincent, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vincent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vincent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vincent average
How we know this about Vincent
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 Vincent’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 Vincent
When does frost risk typically end in Vincent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vincent 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 Vincent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vincent 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vincent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vincent sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 5, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vincent?
The federal record around Vincent is a meaningful one — 284 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Brownfields 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 Vincent?
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 Vincent's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vincent'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 Vincent’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vincent's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 166 acres it covers and 284 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vincent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vincent's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 19 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vincent, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vincent's boundary and the 166 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vincent'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 Vincent's 166 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webster 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 Webster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vincent's 166 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vincent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 166 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Vincent-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaVincent sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides