Beltrami County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Beltrami County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Beltrami County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Beltrami County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Beltrami County — the short answer
Beltrami County, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 1.6M acres.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.6M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Beltrami County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Beltrami County's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Beltrami County
Across a year, Beltrami County accumulates about 1,694 growing degree days above 50°F, about 571 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 9 of Minnesota’s 87 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Beltrami County
Across Beltrami County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Bullwinkle, Cathro, and Greenwood are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
67%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Beltrami County
The USDA soil survey maps 40% of Beltrami County as very poorly drained — but another 41% drains differently: 14% poorly drained, 11% well drained.
Bullwinkle is the most extensive named soil at 8% of mapped acres, then Cathro (6%) and Greenwood (5%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Beltrami County
Each reading below is measured for Beltrami County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Beltrami County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Beltrami County runs about pH 6.0–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBeltrami County runs about 161 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
MeasuredBeltrami County 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 Beltrami County is in
Beltrami County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northern Minnesota Wetlands (65%) and Northern Lakes and Forests (31%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Beltrami County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Beltrami County's own USDA zone 3b and its own 161-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Beltrami County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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.
Documented around Beltrami County
- monarch butterfly48 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Beltrami County
USGS estimates 49,256 lb of Glyphosate on Beltrami County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Bentazone (6,459 lb) and Acetochlor (5,740 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Beltrami County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Beltrami County — 442 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Beltrami County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Beltrami County
Closest first, across Beltrami County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USPHS INDIAN HOSPITALBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- 151N34W26ABC 01Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 151N34W30DBB 01Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 183718Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- RED LAKE TRANSFER STATIONBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- 425539Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- RED LAKE HI-WAY/ROADS DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- 150N34W17BAD 01 0000138677Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- Red Lake FoodsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Big Stone Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Red Lake Public Schools-Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Red Lake Comprehensive Health ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Beltrami County'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 Beltrami County.
Sources Checked
across Beltrami County
Severity Distribution
across Beltrami County
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 Beltrami County
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 Beltrami County average
Your land is one point inside Beltrami County
Everything above resolves to Beltrami County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.6M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Beltrami County Average
Beltrami County Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Beltrami County
- ●One soil character for all of Beltrami County
- ●Frost dates read at Beltrami County's scale: May 4 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Beltrami County's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Beltrami County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Beltrami County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Beltrami County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Beltrami County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Beltrami County average
How we know this about Beltrami County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Beltrami County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Beltrami County
When does frost risk typically end in Beltrami County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Beltrami County typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Beltrami County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Beltrami County sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 28, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Beltrami County?
The federal record around Beltrami County is a meaningful one — 442 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (176), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Beltrami County's scale — its 3b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Beltrami County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Minnesota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Beltrami County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Beltrami County's own scale — its own ~161-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 442 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Beltrami County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Beltrami County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Beltrami CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 442 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Beltrami County's boundary and the 1,602,970 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Beltrami County spans, Northern Minnesota Wetlands the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Beltrami County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Beltrami County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Beltrami County — the ~161 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Beltrami County's 1,602,970 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 442 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Beltrami Countyread your own land →