Coon Rapids, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Coon Rapids, 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 Coon Rapids 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 Coon Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coon Rapids — the short answer
Coon Rapids, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Coon Rapids's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coon Rapids's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coon Rapids
Each reading below is measured for Coon Rapids itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoon Rapids runs about 184 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
MeasuredCoon Rapids 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 Coon Rapids is in
Coon Rapids sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Coon Rapids's own centroid rather than borrowed from Anoka County.
What Grows in Coon Rapids
Every plant below cleared Coon Rapids's own zone 5a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coon Rapids?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Coon Rapids
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coon Rapids. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VOLUNTEERS OF AMERICA-THE HOMESTEAD AT COON RAPIDSBrownfields · 600 ft
- ANOKA HENNEPIN SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 800 ft
- HEALTH PARTNERS- COON RAPIDS MEDICALBrownfields · 1000 ft
- SELECT SENIOR LIVINGBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FOOD N FUEL C23Brownfields · 1300 ft
- Food N Fuel C23Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PLATEWORKS PLUSBrownfields · 1600 ft
- CALIBER COLLISION - COON RAPIDS 3309Brownfields · 1600 ft
- NORTH CITIES ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 1600 ft
- STEINWALL, INC. - CR1Brownfields · 1600 ft
- DIST 11 VEHICLE SERVICE BLDGBrownfields · 1600 ft
- MILLER THOMAS DRBrownfields · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coon Rapids'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 Coon Rapids.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coon Rapids
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coon Rapids
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Coon Rapids, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 3,527 sites within ~10 miles of Coon Rapids. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Coon Rapids
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 Coon Rapids average
Your land is one point inside Coon Rapids
Everything above resolves to Coon Rapids as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Coon Rapids Average
Coon Rapids Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Coon Rapids
- ●One soil character for all of Coon Rapids
- ●Frost dates read at Coon Rapids's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coon Rapids's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coon Rapids
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coon Rapids, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coon Rapids averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coon Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coon Rapids average
How we know this about Coon Rapids
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 Coon Rapids’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 Coon Rapids
When does frost risk typically end in Coon Rapids?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coon Rapids typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Coon Rapids?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coon Rapids typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coon Rapids?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coon Rapids sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 4, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coon Rapids?
The federal record around Coon Rapids runs heavier than most — 5,031 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (3,527), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Coon Rapids?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coon Rapids's scale — its 5a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coon Rapids'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 Coon Rapids’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Coon Rapids's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,464 acres it covers and 5,031 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coon Rapids's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coon Rapids's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 18 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5,031 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coon Rapids, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coon Rapids's boundary and the 14,464 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coon Rapids's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Coon Rapids's 14,464 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Anoka County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Anoka 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 Anoka County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coon Rapids's 14,464 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coon Rapids you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,464 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Coon Rapids-wide figureread your own land →
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