The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) spans USDA hardiness zones 5b-6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Southeast Iowa's Mississippi–Des Moines river corner is the warm anchor of the state: Lee and Des Moines counties are Iowa's ONLY 6a ground, and the eight-county cluster runs 204–216 frost-free days — roughly 15–27 days past the Iowa median of 189 and up to 48 days longer than the coldest far-north counties (168). That extra window is the length of a real second planting: growers here can genuinely finish sweet potatoes, okra, and long-season melons, and overwinter peach and fig that struggle upstate. So this refines Iowa's 4b–6a state compromise calendar — which sits about three weeks short of Lee County's actual window — rather than restating it. Expect sweet corn, tomato, apple, and hosta to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) spans Iowa.
Your yard isn't all of the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner).
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) spans USDA zones 5b-6a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — the short answer
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner): USDA zones 5b-6a, 204–216 frost-free days, in Iowa.
- USDA zones
- 5b-6a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 204–216 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 8
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
Plants matched to the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s USDA zones 5b-6a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)’s USDA zones 5b-6a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across eight member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Alfisols, at 59% of mapped acres, followed by Mollisols (34%) and Entisols (7%). Five soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Lindley, Weller, and Mahaska.
27% of those acres are somewhat poorly drained, and another 26% moderately well drained, 26% poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 5.9–6.7 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 24% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Topsoil pH
5.9–6.7
Hydric soils
27%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Davis County holds the most wetland ground here, at 29% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records27% of the mapped acres across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) are somewhat poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all eight of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) runs pH 5.9–6.7 — near neutral in all eight of them.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s 8 counties the federal record holds 1,881 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (731), Nitrate (710) and Brownfields (288). The heaviest single county is Des Moines County, with 417.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 8 counties in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner), two things run higher than the national average across the 8 counties in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — Nitrate (710 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (119 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
Everything above resolves to the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 5b-6a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) Average
Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b-6a, averaged across Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
- ●One soil character for all of Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s 5b-6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) average
How we know this about the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
What hardiness zone is the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)?
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) spans USDA hardiness zones 5b-6a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s counties mostly run 207 to 210 frost-free days, median 209 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 8 member counties). That 3-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 8 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)?
Across the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Apr 4 and Apr 6 (median Apr 5), and their first fall freeze between Oct 30 and Oct 31. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 26, and elevation decides which end of a 2-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)?
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s conditions suit plants such as Sweet Corn, Tomato, Apple, Hosta, Grape. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) defined?
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) is defined here as a curated cluster of 8 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) cover?
The Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner) spans Iowa. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Driftless Area and Loess Hills share at least one state with the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)'s own scale — the zone 5b-6a band across its footprint, a median 209-day season across its 8 counties and 1,881 documented federal contamination records across its 8 counties, 417 of them in Des Moines County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 5b-6a aggregated across all 8 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 8 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 8 counties run 207 to 210 frost-free days, median 209NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 1,881 documented federal contamination records across its 8 counties, 417 of them in Des Moines County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 59% Alfisols, topsoil pH 5.9–6.7, area-weighted across its 8 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 5b-6afrom Iowa
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 3-day range your ground sits at — 207 days at one extreme, 210 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Southeast Iowa / Great River Region (Mississippi–Des Moines river corner)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Iowa
An unglaciated landscape of steep ridges, deep valleys, and spring-fed coulees in the Upper Midwest — a stronghold of diversified small farms and cold-hardy fruit.
Western Iowa's Loess Hills are a narrow ridge of wind-blown silt piled up to roughly 200 feet deep along the Missouri River — among the deepest loess deposits on Earth, rivaled only by China's Loess Plateau. That soil grows differently from the rest of Iowa: it drains fast, warms early in spring, and leaves ridgetops droughty while eroding hard on steep south- and west-facing slopes. It's distinctive enough that the TTB drew the Loess Hills District wine region across it in 2016 (27 CFR § 9.255), and cold-hardy grapes now share the slopes with orchards, dry prairie remnants, and terraced market gardens. These seven river-edge counties run zone 5a in the north to 5b in the south, roughly a 180–205 day season — so the calendar below is your honest western-Iowa county window, and the growing notes lean into what loess actually asks of you: cover the slopes, watch the drought on the ridges, and let the fast drainage work for your earliest crops.