Amboy, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Amboy, 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 Amboy 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 Amboy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Amboy — the short answer
Amboy, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 200 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 200 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 5a is Amboy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Amboy's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Amboy
Each reading below is measured for Amboy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAmboy runs about 185 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
MeasuredAmboy sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Amboy is in
Amboy sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Amboy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blue Earth County.
What Grows in Amboy
Every plant below cleared Amboy's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Amboy?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Amboy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Amboy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Urban Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- D&K TIRE SERVICEBrownfields · 400 ft
- AMBOY AUTO BODYBrownfields · 600 ft
- ISD 2135 - MAPLE RIVER AMBOYBrownfields · 700 ft
- Caseys General Store #2995Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SYNGENTA SEEDS LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AMBOY EXPRESSBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- AmboyPFAS · 1.1 mi
- 444696Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 444739Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 674522Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- WAKEFIELD PORK INC - MP #2CAFO · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Amboy'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 Amboy.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Amboy
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Amboy
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Amboy
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Amboy, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Amboy — CAFO (20 sites) and Nitrate (44 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Amboy
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 Amboy average
Your land is one point inside Amboy
Everything above resolves to Amboy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 200 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 Amboy Average
Amboy Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Amboy
- ●One soil character for all of Amboy
- ●Frost dates read at Amboy's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Amboy's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Amboy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Amboy, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Amboy averages can't show:
We read public map data around Amboy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Amboy average
How we know this about Amboy
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 Amboy’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 Amboy
When does frost risk typically end in Amboy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Amboy typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Amboy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Amboy typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Amboy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Amboy sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 4, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Amboy?
The federal record around Amboy shows 133 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), 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 Amboy?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Amboy's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Amboy'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 Amboy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Amboy's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 200 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Amboy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Amboy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 18 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Amboy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Amboy's boundary and the 200 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Amboy's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Amboy's 200 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blue Earth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blue Earth County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Blue Earth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Amboy's 200 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Amboy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 200 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 Amboy-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaAmboy sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides