Canton, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Canton, 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 Canton 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 Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Canton — the short answer
Canton, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 660 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 660 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 4b is Canton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Canton's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Canton
Each reading below is measured for Canton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCanton runs about 167 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
MeasuredCanton sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Canton is in
Canton sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Canton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fillmore County.
What Grows in Canton
Every plant below cleared Canton's own zone 4b and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Canton?
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 Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Canton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Canton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 101N09W29AAA 01 0000225999Nitrate · 150 ft
- Canton Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 225997Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 147371Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 156855Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 101258Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- 225989Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 236933Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 226001Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 104994Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 226000Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- KNIFE RIVER MIDWEST LLC CRUSHING PLANT 2Brownfields · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Canton'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 Canton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Canton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Canton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Canton, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Canton. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Canton
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 Canton average
Your land is one point inside Canton
Everything above resolves to Canton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 660 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 Canton Average
Canton Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Canton
- ●One soil character for all of Canton
- ●Frost dates read at Canton's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Canton's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Canton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Canton, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Canton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Canton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Canton average
How we know this about Canton
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 Canton’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 Canton
When does frost risk typically end in Canton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Canton typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Canton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Canton typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Canton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Canton sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 27, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Canton?
The federal record around Canton shows 94 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (58), the nearest Nitrate 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 Canton?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Canton's scale — its 4b band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Canton'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 Canton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Canton's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 660 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Canton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Canton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 11 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Canton, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Canton's boundary and the 660 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Canton's own centroid, the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Canton's 660 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fillmore County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fillmore 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 Fillmore County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Canton's 660 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Canton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 660 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Canton-wide figureread your own land →
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