De Soto, IA 50069 Frost Dates
50069, near De Soto, IA: the frost window
Around 04/30 is the usual last spring frost, about 245 days away. Fall's first freeze usually shows up around 10/03, roughly 157 days after the last spring frost.
The USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map puts De Soto in Zone 5b (-15 to -10°F average annual minimum); frost dates are NOAA's 1991-2020 station normal, not this year's forecast.
Stretching the season past the first frost
De Soto's growing season runs out in roughly 5 weeks — a cold frame or greenhouse kit is the usual way to keep cool-weather crops going past the first frost.
How much risk comes with planting early here
04/30 is the middle of 30 years of NOAA records, not a promise. Getting tender plants in by 04/17 carries real risk, frost has hit that late in about 9 of 10 years here. Wait until 05/11 and only about 1 year in 10 sees frost after that.
De Soto against the rest of the dataset
At roughly 157 frost-free days, De Soto places 33,386 of 40,283 ZIP codes in this dataset. Within IA, it ranks 841 of 1,042.
Learn more
Two guides worth reading on 50069: zone vs. frost date, on why Zone 5b and De Soto's frost date answer different questions, and the frost range, on how to read the range around De Soto's dates instead of trusting one.