Wapello, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blueberry, 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 Wapello, 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 Wapello 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 Wapello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wapello — the short answer
Wapello, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 831 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 831 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 Wapello's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wapello's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wapello
Each reading below is measured for Wapello itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWapello runs about 211 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWapello 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 Wapello is in
Wapello sits in the Interior River Valleys and Hills — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wapello's own centroid rather than borrowed from Louisa County.
What Grows in Wapello
Every plant below cleared Wapello's own zone 5b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wapello?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Wapello
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wapello. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDIAN HILLS COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- LLOYD MEYERHOLZUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- LOUISA COUNTY CARE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- MARK TWAIN WILDLIFE REFUGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- PALLISTER PALLET INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- LOUISA COUNTY ENGINEERUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- LOUISA COUNTY MAINT SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- LOUISA COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JMC CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- GRIMM BROTHERS PLASTICS CORPBrownfields · 1400 ft
- FARMERS'' ELEVATOR FUEL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 074N03W27BDDD 43030 1947Wapello 3Nitrate · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wapello'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 Wapello.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Wapello
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wapello
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wapello
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wapello, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Wapello. 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 Wapello
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 Wapello average
Your land is one point inside Wapello
Everything above resolves to Wapello as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 831 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 Wapello Average
Wapello Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Wapello
- ●One soil character for all of Wapello
- ●Frost dates read at Wapello's scale: Apr 5 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wapello's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wapello
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wapello, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wapello averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wapello — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wapello average
How we know this about Wapello
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 Wapello’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 Wapello
When does frost risk typically end in Wapello?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wapello typically lands around Apr 5, 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 Apr 26.
When is the first frost in Wapello?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wapello typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wapello?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wapello sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 19, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wapello?
The federal record around Wapello shows 142 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (98), 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 Wapello?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wapello's scale — its 5b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wapello'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 Wapello’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wapello's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 831 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wapello's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wapello's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Nov 2 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wapello, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wapello's boundary and the 831 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wapello's own centroid, the Interior River Valleys and HillsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wapello's 831 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Louisa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Louisa 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 Louisa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wapello's 831 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wapello you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 831 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 Wapello-wide figureread your own land →