Cedar Rapids, Nebraska, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cedar Rapids, 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 Cedar Rapids 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 Cedar Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Rapids — the short answer
Cedar Rapids, Nebraska: USDA zone 5b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 230 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 230 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 Cedar Rapids's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Rapids's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Rapids
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Rapids itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCedar Rapids runs about 181 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
MeasuredCedar Rapids 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 Cedar Rapids is in
Cedar Rapids sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cedar Rapids's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boone County.
What Grows in Cedar Rapids
Every plant below cleared Cedar Rapids's own zone 5b and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Nebraska profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Rapids?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Rapids
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Rapids. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CEDAR RAPIDS PUBLIC SCHOOLSBrownfields · 900 ft
- CEDARS RAPID STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 18N 7W16DD 1Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- CEDAR RIVER FEEDERS LLCCAFO · 2.9 mi
- 18N 7W14BB 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 19N 8W27BC 1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 18N 7W24ABAA1Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- COUNTRY PARTNERS COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- HIGHLAND FEEDERS, INC.CAFO · 6.7 mi
- 19N 7W 2BBC 1 ALBIONNitrate · 6.8 mi
- ROBERT MALANDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- 19N 9W12AB 1Nitrate · 9.5 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Rapids'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 Cedar Rapids.
Total Sites
19
within ~10 miles of Cedar Rapids
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Rapids
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Rapids
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Rapids
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 Cedar Rapids average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Rapids
Everything above resolves to Cedar Rapids as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 230 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 town 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 Cedar Rapids Average
Cedar Rapids Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Cedar Rapids
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Rapids
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Rapids's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Rapids's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Rapids
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Rapids, Nebraska — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Rapids averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Rapids average
How we know this about Cedar Rapids
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cedar Rapids’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Cedar Rapids
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Rapids?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Rapids typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Cedar Rapids?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Rapids typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Rapids?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Rapids sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Rapids?
The federal record around Cedar Rapids is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (12), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedar Rapids?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Rapids's scale — its 5b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Rapids'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 Cedar Rapids’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Rapids's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 230 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Rapids's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cedar Rapids's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Rapids, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Rapids's boundary and the 230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cedar Rapids's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Rapids's 230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boone County
- The growing challenges every Nebraska grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Nebraska
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Boone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Rapids's 230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Rapids you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 230 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 Cedar Rapids-wide figureread your own land →
More in Nebraska
Wider growing context
What grows across NebraskaCedar Rapids sits outside our named growing regions, so Nebraska as a whole is its closest context here.