Morrison County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Morrison County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Morrison 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 Morrison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Morrison County — the short answer
Morrison County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 720K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 720K 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 4a is Morrison County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morrison County's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Morrison County
Across a year, Morrison County accumulates about 2,108 growing degree days above 50°F, about 157 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 28 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 Morrison County
Across Morrison County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Mahtomedi, Menahga, and Brainerd are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
14%
Hydric soils
35%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Morrison County
The USDA soil survey maps 20% of Morrison County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 77% drains differently: 20% very poorly drained, 16% excessively drained.
Mahtomedi is the most extensive named soil at 7% of mapped acres, then Menahga (7%) and Brainerd (6%).
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 Morrison County
Each reading below is measured for Morrison 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 Morrison County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group B/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 Morrison County runs about pH 5.5–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMorrison County runs about 160 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
MeasuredMorrison County sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Morrison County is in
Morrison County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Hardwood Forests (57%) and Northern Lakes and Forests (43%). 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 Morrison County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Morrison County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 160-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 Morrison 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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — 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.
Documented around Morrison County
- monarch butterfly73 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Morrison County
USGS estimates 89,929 lb of Glyphosate on Morrison County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (71,149 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (15,348 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 Morrison County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Morrison County — 452 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Morrison 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 Morrison County
Closest first, across Morrison County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Funks MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Saint Johns Church/bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Lastrup ImplUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Farmers SupplyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Saint Augustin Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 494537Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- BOB NELSON AUTOBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- CENTRAL MN RENEWABLESToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- NUMAKE-2 LLC OF MNBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CENTRAL MN RENEWABLESBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- American Tower Corp LF MN3 87844Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DMS MACHINE INCBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morrison 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 Morrison County.
Total Sites
452
across Morrison County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Morrison County
Severity Distribution
across Morrison County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morrison County, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 21 sites across Morrison County. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Morrison 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 Morrison County average
Your land is one point inside Morrison County
Everything above resolves to Morrison County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 720K 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 Morrison County Average
Morrison County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Morrison County
- ●One soil character for all of Morrison County
- ●Frost dates read at Morrison County's scale: May 1 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morrison County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Morrison County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morrison County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morrison County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morrison County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morrison County average
How we know this about Morrison 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 Morrison County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Morrison County
When does frost risk typically end in Morrison County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morrison County typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Morrison County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morrison County sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 24, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morrison County?
The federal record around Morrison County is a meaningful one — 452 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (169), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Morrison County's scale — its 4a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morrison 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 Morrison County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Morrison County's own scale — its own ~160-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 452 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morrison County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morrison County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Morrison CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 452 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Morrison County's boundary and the 720,064 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Morrison County spans, North Central Hardwood Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Morrison County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Morrison 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 Morrison County — the ~160 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 Morrison County's 720,064 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 452 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 Morrison Countyread your own land →