Apple Valley, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Apple Valley, 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 Apple Valley 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 Apple Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Apple Valley — the short answer
Apple Valley, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 11K 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 11K 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 Apple Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Apple Valley's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Apple Valley
Each reading below is measured for Apple Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredApple Valley runs about 186 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
MeasuredApple Valley 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 Apple Valley is in
Apple Valley sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Apple Valley's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Dakota County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Apple Valley
Every plant below cleared Apple Valley's own zone 5a and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Apple Valley?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Apple Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Apple Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Apple ValleyPFAS · 0 ft
- APPLE VALLEY CITY OFBrownfields · 950 ft
- BURLINGTON COAT FACTORY #435Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- American Student TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Phillips 66 #2706248Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Apple Valley FordUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Firestone Store Apple ValleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kwik Trip #406Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- North Star Concrete Co - Apple ValleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Former Beatrice Grocery Group/fisher NutUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Apple Valley city ofUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lakeville/apple Valley Lift Station L-15Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Apple Valley'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 Apple Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Apple Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Apple Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Apple Valley, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 2,891 sites within ~10 miles of Apple Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Apple Valley
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 Apple Valley average
Your land is one point inside Apple Valley
Everything above resolves to Apple Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Apple Valley Average
Apple Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Apple Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Apple Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Apple Valley's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Apple Valley's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Apple Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Apple Valley, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Apple Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Apple Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Apple Valley average
How we know this about Apple Valley
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 Apple Valley’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 Apple Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Apple Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Valley 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 Apple Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Apple Valley typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Apple Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Apple Valley sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 5, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Apple Valley?
The federal record around Apple Valley runs heavier than most — 3,978 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (2,891), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Apple Valley?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Apple Valley's scale — its 5a band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Apple Valley'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 Apple Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Apple Valley's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,797 acres it covers and 3,978 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Apple Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Apple Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 19 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3,978 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Apple Valley, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Apple Valley's boundary and the 10,797 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Apple Valley sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Apple Valley's 10,797 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dakota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dakota 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 Dakota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Apple Valley's 10,797 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Apple Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,797 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Apple Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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