Arco, 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.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Arco, 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 Arco 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 Arco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Arco — the short answer
Arco, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 186 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 186 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 Arco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arco's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arco
Each reading below is measured for Arco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArco runs about 175 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
MeasuredArco 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 Arco is in
Arco sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Arco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Arco
Every plant below cleared Arco's own zone 5a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arco?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Arco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STROBEL FARMS WEST LLCCAFO · 4.1 mi
- 110N44W19BCD 01 S NelsonNitrate · 4.5 mi
- 473619Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 110N44W11DAD 01 G BilleNitrate · 5.0 mi
- 112N44W31DDB 01 KusnierkeNitrate · 5.2 mi
- RED PINE WIND FARMBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- 133090Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 110N45W16DDC 01 PetersenNitrate · 5.5 mi
- DIVINE PROVIDENCE HEALTH CENTBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- MNDOT DISTRICT 8 IVANHOEBrownfields · 6.2 mi
- LIPINSKI GARAGEBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- LINCOLN COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arco'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 Arco.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Arco
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arco, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Arco — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (52 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Arco
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 Arco average
Your land is one point inside Arco
Everything above resolves to Arco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 186 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 Arco Average
Arco Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Arco
- ●One soil character for all of Arco
- ●Frost dates read at Arco's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arco's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arco, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arco average
How we know this about Arco
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 Arco’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 Arco
When does frost risk typically end in Arco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arco typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Arco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arco typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arco sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 29, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arco?
The federal record around Arco shows 90 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest CAFO record about 4.1 miles 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 Arco?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arco's scale — its 5a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arco'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 Arco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arco's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 186 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 13 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arco, the closest CAFO record about 4.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arco's boundary and the 186 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arco's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arco's 186 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arco's 186 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 186 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 4.1 miles 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 Arco-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaArco sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides