Backus, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Backus, 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 Backus 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 Backus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Backus — the short answer
Backus, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 157 days between hard freezes, across 397 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~157
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 397 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 4a is Backus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Backus's 157-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Backus
Each reading below is measured for Backus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBackus runs about 157 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
MeasuredBackus sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Backus is in
Backus sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Backus's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Backus
Every plant below cleared Backus's own zone 4a and its 157-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Backus?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Backus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Backus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Nicholson Transportation CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Godreys True ValueUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Backus Municipal AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Northern Star Coop ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 17385Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Backus Corner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EVELANDS INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- EVELANDS INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- ENBRIDGE ENERGY - BACKUS STATBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- F & S TRANSMISSIONSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- HOPKINS STRIP SHOPBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- 410888Nitrate · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Backus'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 Backus.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Backus
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Backus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Backus
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Backus
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 Backus average
Your land is one point inside Backus
Everything above resolves to Backus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 397 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 Backus Average
Backus Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Backus
- ●One soil character for all of Backus
- ●Frost dates read at Backus's scale: May 2 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Backus's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Backus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Backus, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Backus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Backus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Backus average
How we know this about Backus
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 Backus’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 Backus
When does frost risk typically end in Backus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Backus typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Backus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Backus typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 157 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Backus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Backus sees about 157 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 22, about 122 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Backus?
The federal record around Backus shows 89 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Backus?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Backus's scale — its 4a band and its 157-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Backus'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 Backus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Backus's own scale — its own ~157-day season between 28°F freezes, the 397 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Backus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Backus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 6 and the ~157-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Backus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Backus's boundary and the 397 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~157-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Backus's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Backus's 397 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Backus's 397 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Backus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 397 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Backus-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBackus sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides