Balaton, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Balaton, 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 Balaton 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 Balaton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Balaton — the short answer
Balaton, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 178 days between hard freezes, across 929 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~178
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 929 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 Balaton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Balaton's 178-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Balaton
Each reading below is measured for Balaton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBalaton runs about 178 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
MeasuredBalaton 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 Balaton is in
Balaton sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Balaton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lyon County.
What Grows in Balaton
Every plant below cleared Balaton's own zone 5a and its 178-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Balaton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Balaton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Balaton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISD 411 Balaton SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BALATON DENTAL CLINICBrownfields · 350 ft
- RALCO TECHNOLOGY CAMPUSBrownfields · 950 ft
- ISD 411 BALATON SCHOOLBrownfields · 950 ft
- Pete's Garage LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Colonial Manor of BalatonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Di's LakesideUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COLONIAL MANOR OF BALATONBrownfields · 2500 ft
- BOB'S BODY SHOP - BALATONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- THREE LITTLE PIGS FARMCAFO · 2.5 mi
- Farmers Coop Oil Co Of BalatonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Standard StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Balaton'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 Balaton.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Balaton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Balaton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Balaton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Balaton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Balaton — CAFO (11 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Balaton
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 Balaton average
Your land is one point inside Balaton
Everything above resolves to Balaton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 929 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 Balaton Average
Balaton Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Balaton
- ●One soil character for all of Balaton
- ●Frost dates read at Balaton's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Balaton's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Balaton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Balaton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Balaton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Balaton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Balaton average
How we know this about Balaton
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 Balaton’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 Balaton
When does frost risk typically end in Balaton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Balaton typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Balaton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Balaton typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 178 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Balaton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Balaton sees about 178 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 1, about 143 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Balaton?
The federal record around Balaton shows 65 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), 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 Balaton?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Balaton's scale — its 5a band and its 178-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Balaton'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 Balaton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Balaton's own scale — its own ~178-day season between 28°F freezes, the 929 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Balaton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Balaton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 15 and the ~178-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Balaton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Balaton's boundary and the 929 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~178-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Balaton's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Balaton's 929 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lyon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lyon 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 Lyon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Balaton's 929 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Balaton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 929 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 Balaton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBalaton sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.