Gardening in Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
Every ZIP code in this metro is USDA zone 5b. That is unusual — most metros span several zones — and it means the one number people usually look up is the same wherever you are here.
Your freeze dates
Those are the earliest and latest medians among the 16 stations serving this metro — not an average, and not one station standing in for the rest. Half of years freeze later than a station's own median.
The spread is the point. Even in a metro that is one hardiness zone throughout, its stations disagree about the last spring freeze. Hardiness zone and frost date measure different things — a zone is the average annual coldest night, a freeze date is when the season turns — and a place can be uniform in one and varied in the other. Use the tools below with your own ZIP rather than the ends of this range.
Your growing season
NOAA publishes a growing-season length for each station, and across the 16 stations serving Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL it runs 165–190 days . That figure is published, not computed from the two freeze dates — subtracting one from the other gives the wrong answer wherever a season crosses New Year. Mean summer high (June–August) runs 82–85 °F , below the 90 °F point where cool-season crops reliably bolt.
When to start seeds in Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
Every spring job for 63 crop dates, counted from this metro's own last spring freeze. Each is a range across all 16 stations — the earliest and latest that job falls anywhere in the metro — because no one station speaks for the whole area.
| Crop | Job | When | Offset |
|---|---|---|---|
| Green Onions | Start indoors | February 17 – March 3 | 8 weeks before |
| Peppers | Start indoors | February 17 – March 3 | 8 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Collards | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Kale | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Peas | Direct sow | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Spinach | Direct sow | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Sweet Potato | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Tomatoes | Start indoors | March 3 – March 17 | 6 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Start indoors | March 10 – March 24 | 5 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Start indoors | March 10 – March 24 | 5 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Start indoors | March 10 – March 24 | 5 weeks before |
| Arugula | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Baby Salad Greens | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Beets | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Mustard Greens | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Okra | Start indoors | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Radishes | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Turnips | Direct sow | March 17 – March 31 | 4 weeks before |
| Cabbage | Set out | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Carrots | Direct sow | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Direct sow | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Collards | Set out | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Cucumbers | Start indoors | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Green Onions | Set out | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Direct sow | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Kale | Set out | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Direct sow | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Kohlrabi | Set out | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Direct sow | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Pumpkins | Start indoors | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Summer Squash | Start indoors | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Winter Squash | Start indoors | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Zucchini | Start indoors | March 24 – April 7 | 3 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Direct sow | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Bok Choy | Set out | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Broccoli | Set out | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Cilantro | Direct sow | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Leaf Lettuce | Set out | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Direct sow | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Swiss Chard | Set out | March 31 – April 14 | 2 weeks before |
| Dill | Direct sow | April 7 – April 21 | 1 week before |
| Bush Beans | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Pumpkins | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Summer Squash | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Sweet Corn | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Tomatoes | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Winter Squash | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Direct sow | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Zucchini | Set out | April 21 – May 5 | 1 week after |
| Cucumbers | Direct sow | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Direct sow | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
| Okra | Set out | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
| Peppers | Set out | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
| Southern Peas | Direct sow | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
| Sweet Potato | Set out | April 28 – May 12 | 2 weeks after |
The week offsets are conventional extension guidance and vary by variety; the freeze dates they are counted from are measured. For a single date rather than a range, run when do I start my seeds? with your own ZIP code.
What lives through a zone 5b winter
Winter hardiness runs on the zone alone, so this one is exact for the whole of Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL rather than a range. Of 74 perennial fruits, nuts, berries, vegetables and herbs, 48 come through a zone 5b winter .
Among them: Cranberry, Honeyberry, Lingonberry, Apple, Aronia, Black Currant, Elderberry, Gooseberry. See the full list with reasons.
The 16 stations behind these numbers
Every figure above comes from these, and each is named so you can check it. Distances vary by ZIP code, so the tools report yours rather than this page guessing.
| Station | NOAA ID | Last spring freeze | First fall freeze | Season |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aledo, IL | USC00110072 | April 22 | October 19 | 181 days |
| Altona, IL | USC00110140 | April 28 | October 12 | 165 days |
| Clinton #1, IA | USC00131635 | April 22 | October 16 | 175 days |
| Davenport Wfo, IA | USC00132070 | April 21 | October 17 | 176 days |
| Davenport, IA | USW00094982 | April 23 | October 15 | 174 days |
| Galesburg, IL | USC00113320 | April 20 | October 19 | 180 days |
| Galva, IL | USC00113335 | April 26 | October 12 | 166 days |
| Geneseo, IL | USC00113384 | April 20 | October 20 | 180 days |
| Illinois City Dam 16, IL | USC00114355 | April 18 | October 24 | 188 days |
| Kewanee 1 E, IL | USC00114710 | April 24 | October 17 | 175 days |
| Le Claire L&D 14, IA | USC00134705 | April 16 | October 25 | 190 days |
| Lowden, IA | USC00134963 | April 27 | October 10 | 165 days |
| Moline Quad City INTL AP, IL | USW00014923 | April 24 | October 18 | 176 days |
| Monmouth, IL | USC00115768 | April 22 | October 15 | 174 days |
| New Boston Dam 17, IL | USC00116080 | April 14 | October 24 | 190 days |
| Rock Island L&D 15, IL | USC00117391 | April 19 | October 22 | 184 days |
These are medians, not averages — NOAA publishes freeze dates as a probability distribution, and half of years freeze later than the date shown.
Work out your own dates
Each of these takes a ZIP code and answers for that ZIP alone, citing the station it used and how far away it is. There is a ZIP box in the header of every page.
- What survives my winter?
Runs on the hardiness zone, so it answers for all of Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL at once — zone 5b across 74 perennial fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs.
- When do I start my seeds?
Dates every spring job from your own last freeze — sow indoors, set out, direct sow.
- When do I sow the next round?
How often each crop is worth re-sowing, and when the next sowing is due.
- What can I still plant?
Counts the growing days left before your first fall freeze, crop by crop.
Where these numbers come from
The hardiness zone is the USDA 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone Map, published per ZIP code by PRISM at Oregon State. The freeze dates are NOAA's 1991–2020 Climate Normals, read from every station whose normals cover a ZIP code in this metro. Nothing here is estimated, and no station stands in for another.
This page names no single station on purpose. Picking one to represent a metro sounds reasonable and is not: the station serving the most ZIP codes is an artifact of where ZIP centroids happen to fall, and it selects a lock on the Monongahela for Pittsburgh and a far southern suburb for Chicago. A range across every station is true; a single cited date for a whole metro is not.