Le Sueur County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Le Sueur County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Le Sueur County — the short answer
Le Sueur County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 287K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 287K 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 4b is Le Sueur County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Le Sueur County's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Le Sueur County
Across a year, Le Sueur County accumulates about 2,384 growing degree days above 50°F, about 119 more than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 65 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 Le Sueur County
Across Le Sueur County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Lester, Le Sueur, and Cordova are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.6, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
43%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Le Sueur County
The USDA soil survey maps 27% of Le Sueur County as poorly drained — but another 68% drains differently: 26% well drained, 18% somewhat poorly drained.
Lester is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Le Sueur (12%) and Cordova (11%).
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 Le Sueur County
Each reading below is measured for Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County are poorly drained, in hydrologic group C/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 Le Sueur County runs about pH 6.2–6.6, 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
MeasuredLe Sueur County runs about 181 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
MeasuredLe Sueur County 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 Le Sueur County is in
Le Sueur County sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Le Sueur County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Le Sueur County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 181-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 Le Sueur County?
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 18 — 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.
Documented around Le Sueur County
- monarch butterfly17 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Le Sueur County
USGS estimates 73,545 lb of Glyphosate on Le Sueur County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (14,893 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (13,128 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 Le Sueur County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Le Sueur County — 287 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). 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 Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County
Closest first, across Le Sueur County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EUROPEAN ROASTERIEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Le Sueur County ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FIBERGLAS FABRICATORS INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FIBERGLAS FABRICATORS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- Freedom Valu Center/Erickson OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BEER OIL & TIREBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Beer Oil & TireUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WAYNE'S AUTO BODY LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DESSERT HOLDINGS LLC - LE CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- MAX JOHNSON TRUCKINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Max Johnson Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cenex C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County.
Total Sites
287
across Le Sueur County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Le Sueur County
Severity Distribution
across Le Sueur County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Le Sueur County, two things run higher than the national average across Le Sueur County — CAFO (12 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County average
Your land is one point inside Le Sueur County
Everything above resolves to Le Sueur County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 287K 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 Le Sueur County Average
Le Sueur County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Le Sueur County
- ●One soil character for all of Le Sueur County
- ●Frost dates read at Le Sueur County's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Le Sueur County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Le Sueur County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Le Sueur County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Le Sueur County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Le Sueur County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Le Sueur County average
How we know this about Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Le Sueur County
When does frost risk typically end in Le Sueur County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Le Sueur County 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.
How long is the growing season in Le Sueur County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Le Sueur County sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Le Sueur County?
The federal record around Le Sueur County is a meaningful one — 287 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (112), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Le Sueur County's scale — its 4b band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Le Sueur County's own scale — its own ~181-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 287 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Le Sueur County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Le Sueur County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Le Sueur CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 287 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Le Sueur County's boundary and the 287,203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Le Sueur County sitting wholly inside the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Le Sueur County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County — the ~181 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 Le Sueur County's 287,203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 287 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 Le Sueur Countyread your own land →