Pope County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Pope County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Pope 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 Pope County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pope County — the short answer
Pope County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 432K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 432K 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 Pope County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pope County's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Pope County
Across a year, Pope County accumulates about 2,268 growing degree days above 50°F, about 3 more than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 44 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 Pope County
Across Pope County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Hokans, Arvilla, and Buse are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
31%
Hydric soils
27%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Pope County
The USDA soil survey maps 43% of Pope County as well drained — but another 50% drains differently: 15% somewhat excessively drained, 13% poorly drained.
Hokans is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Arvilla (14%) and Buse (8%).
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 Pope County
Each reading below is measured for Pope 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 Pope County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Pope County runs about pH 6.7–7.5, 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
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 27% of Pope County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredPope County runs about 175 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
The kind of country Pope County is in
Pope County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Hardwood Forests (90%) and Northern Glaciated Plains (10%). 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 Pope County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Pope County's own USDA zone 4b and its own 175-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 Pope County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Pope County
- monarch butterfly334 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Pope County
USGS estimates 219,701 lb of Glyphosate on Pope County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (82,688 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (62,091 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 Pope County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Pope County — 323 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Pope 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 Pope County
Closest first, across Pope County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Agrow IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Pope County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 549180Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- ISD 2149 MINNEWASKA AREA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- 489323Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 124N38W06CBB 01Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- MULTI-SITE - SELECT GENETICS - STARBUCK HILLS AND HARGIN SITESCAFO · 2.8 mi
- BOONSTRA STARBUCK EASTCAFO · 2.8 mi
- 482685Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 179696Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- BOONSTRA STARBUCK WESTCAFO · 3.1 mi
- 492169Nitrate · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pope 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 Pope County.
Total Sites
323
across Pope County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Pope County
Severity Distribution
across Pope County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pope County, two things run higher than the national average across Pope County — CAFO (12 sites) and Nitrate (214 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pope 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 Pope County average
Your land is one point inside Pope County
Everything above resolves to Pope County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 432K 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 Pope County Average
Pope County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pope County
- ●One soil character for all of Pope County
- ●Frost dates read at Pope County's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pope County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Pope County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pope County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pope County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pope County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pope County average
How we know this about Pope 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 Pope County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Pope County
When does frost risk typically end in Pope County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pope County typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Pope County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pope County sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 29, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pope County?
The federal record around Pope County is a meaningful one — 323 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (214), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pope County's scale — its 4b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pope 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 Pope County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Pope County's own scale — its own ~175-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 323 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pope County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pope County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Pope CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 323 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Pope County's boundary and the 431,718 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Pope County spans, North Central Hardwood Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Pope County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Pope 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 Pope County — the ~175 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 Pope County's 431,718 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 323 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 Pope Countyread your own land →