Weldon, Iowa, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Weldon, 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 Weldon 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 Weldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Weldon — the short answer
Weldon, Iowa: USDA zone 5b, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 124 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- 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
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 124 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 Weldon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weldon's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weldon
Each reading below is measured for Weldon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWeldon runs about 192 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
MeasuredWeldon 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 Weldon is in
Weldon sits in the Central Irregular Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Weldon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Decatur County.
What Grows in Weldon
Every plant below cleared Weldon's own zone 5b and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Iowa profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weldon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (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 Weldon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weldon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEASLEY DXUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CLARKE COMM. SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- 070N25W04ACBA 00881 1938Weldon Consolidated SchoolNitrate · 1.4 mi
- ROLLING HILLS FS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- FORMER J & L COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- SPORT WADE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- 072N25W32BCBCNitrate · 5.9 mi
- 071N24W21BDB 1966Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 069N26W34BBBD 1971Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- 070N24W34BBBA 09894 1958Garden Grove 1Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- GARDEN GROVE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- TOM MOSERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weldon'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 Weldon.
Total Sites
72
within ~10 miles of Weldon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weldon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weldon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Weldon, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Weldon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Weldon
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 Weldon average
Your land is one point inside Weldon
Everything above resolves to Weldon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 124 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 Weldon Average
Weldon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Weldon
- ●One soil character for all of Weldon
- ●Frost dates read at Weldon's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weldon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weldon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weldon, Iowa — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weldon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weldon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weldon average
How we know this about Weldon
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 Weldon’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 Weldon
When does frost risk typically end in Weldon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weldon typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Weldon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weldon 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 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weldon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weldon sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 7, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weldon?
The federal record around Weldon shows 72 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), 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 Weldon?
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 Weldon's scale — its 5b band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weldon'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 Weldon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Weldon's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 124 acres it covers and 72 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weldon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Weldon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 21 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 72 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weldon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weldon's boundary and the 124 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weldon's own centroid, the Central Irregular PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Weldon's 124 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Decatur County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Decatur 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 Decatur County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Weldon's 124 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weldon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 124 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 Weldon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Iowa
Wider growing context
What grows across IowaWeldon sits outside our named growing regions, so Iowa as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides