Ball Club, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ball Club, 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 Ball Club 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 Ball Club — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ball Club — the short answer
Ball Club, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 164 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~164
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 3b is Ball Club's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ball Club's 164-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ball Club
Each reading below is measured for Ball Club itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBall Club runs about 164 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
MeasuredBall Club sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Ball Club is in
Ball Club sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Ball Club's own centroid rather than borrowed from Itasca County.
What Grows in Ball Club
Every plant below cleared Ball Club's own zone 3b and its 164-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ball Club?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 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 Ball Club
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ball Club. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Harwoods LbjUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GREAT LAKES GAS TRANSMISSION PIPELINE DEER RIVER CS#4Brownfields · 4.6 mi
- Winnie JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Northland LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Deer River Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Itasca County Garage - BowstringUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Rileys Fine FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- High Banks ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Trout Post & Pole Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Hoffers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Eagle Nest LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Inger StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ball Club'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 Ball Club.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ball Club
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ball Club
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Ball Club
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 Ball Club average
Your land is one point inside Ball Club
Everything above resolves to Ball Club as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 town 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 Ball Club Average
Ball Club Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Ball Club
- ●One soil character for all of Ball Club
- ●Frost dates read at Ball Club's scale: May 2 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ball Club's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ball Club
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ball Club, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ball Club averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ball Club — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ball Club average
How we know this about Ball Club
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ball Club’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Ball Club
When does frost risk typically end in Ball Club?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ball Club 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 Ball Club?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ball Club 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 164 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ball Club?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ball Club sees about 164 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 29, about 129 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ball Club?
The federal record around Ball Club shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Ball Club?
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 Ball Club's scale — its 3b band and its 164-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ball Club'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 Ball Club’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ball Club's own scale — its own ~164-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,769 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ball Club's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ball Club's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 13 and the ~164-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ball Club, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ball Club's boundary and the 1,769 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~164-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ball Club'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 Ball Club's 1,769 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Itasca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Itasca 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 Itasca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ball Club's 1,769 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ball Club you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,769 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Ball Club-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaBall Club sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides