Red Lake County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — 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, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Red Lake County lies within the Red River Valley — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Red Lake County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Red Lake 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 Red Lake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Red Lake County — the short answer
Red Lake County, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 277K acres.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 277K 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 Red Lake County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Lake County's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Red Lake County
Across a year, Red Lake County accumulates about 1,787 growing degree days above 50°F, about 478 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 16 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 Red Lake County
Across Red Lake County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Smiley, Kratka, and Strathcona are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally poorly drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Poorly drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
63%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Red Lake County
The USDA soil survey maps 54% of Red Lake County as poorly drained — but another 45% drains differently: 24% moderately well drained, 11% somewhat poorly drained.
Smiley is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Kratka (9%) and Strathcona (9%).
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 Red Lake County
Each reading below is measured for Red Lake 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 Red Lake County are 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 Red Lake County runs about pH 7.0–7.9, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredRed Lake 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
MeasuredRed Lake 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 Red Lake County is in
Red Lake County sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Red Lake County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Red Lake 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 Red Lake County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Red Lake County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Red Lake County
USGS estimates 87,159 lb of Glyphosate on Red Lake County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (11,576 lb) and Bromoxynil (10,776 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 Red Lake County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Red Lake County — 64 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 19 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Red Lake County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Red Lake County
Closest first, across Red Lake County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Red Lake County Plummer ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Red River Ag Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- ENBRIDGE ENERGY - MP 877 - PLBrownfields · 4.3 mi
- PARADIS MAIL SERVICE INCBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- Red Lake County Coop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Brooks C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- BROOKS AUTO SALESBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- 490605Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 152N42W28CCD 01 SkjervenNitrate · 6.1 mi
- Th32 R/w At Jct Of Second StreetUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- 150N42W25CCC 01 S BerbertNitrate · 8.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 17197Brownfields · 8.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Lake 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 Red Lake County.
Severity Distribution
across Red Lake County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Lake County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites across Red Lake County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Red Lake 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 Red Lake County average
Your land is one point inside Red Lake County
Everything above resolves to Red Lake County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 277K 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 Red Lake County Average
Red Lake County Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Red Lake County
- ●One soil character for all of Red Lake County
- ●Frost dates read at Red Lake County's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Lake County's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Red Lake County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Lake County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Lake County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Lake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Lake County average
How we know this about Red Lake 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 Red Lake County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Red Lake County
When does frost risk typically end in Red Lake County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lake County typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
How long is the growing season in Red Lake County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Lake County sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Lake County?
The federal record around Red Lake County shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Red Lake County's scale — its 3b band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Lake 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 Red Lake County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Red Lake County's own scale — its own ~161-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 64 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Lake County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Lake 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 Red Lake CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 64 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Red Lake County's boundary and the 276,741 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Red Lake County sitting wholly inside the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Red Lake County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Red Lake 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 Red Lake 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 Red Lake County's 276,741 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 64 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 Red Lake Countyread your own land →