Todd County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Todd County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Todd 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 Todd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Todd County — the short answer
Todd County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 605K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 605K 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 Todd County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Todd County's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Todd County
Across a year, Todd County accumulates about 2,009 growing degree days above 50°F, about 256 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 25 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 Todd County
Across Todd County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Rockwood, Blowers, and Kandota are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.0–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C/D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
33%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Todd County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Todd County as well drained — but another 65% drains differently: 22% very poorly drained, 18% moderately well drained.
Rockwood is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Blowers (10%) and Kandota (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 Todd County
Each reading below is measured for Todd 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 Todd County are well drained, in hydrologic group C/D — 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 Todd County runs about pH 6.0–6.5, 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 33% of Todd 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
MeasuredTodd County runs about 167 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 Todd County is in
Todd County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — North Central Hardwood Forests (93%) and Northern Lakes and Forests (7%). 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 Todd County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Todd County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 167-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 Todd 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 Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Todd County
- monarch butterfly8 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Todd County
USGS estimates 93,874 lb of Glyphosate on Todd County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (63,078 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (14,489 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 Todd County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Todd County — 486 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site. 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 Todd 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 Todd County
Closest first, across Todd County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Little Sauk Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Todd County Shop #4Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 654664Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- DAN'S PRIZE, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- DAN'S PRIZE, INC.Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- JOHN BROWNToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- Former Townsedge OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- T130NR33WS17DBBNitrate · 1.7 mi
- LAKEWOOD CLINIC BROWERVILLEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 16452Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- LAKEWOOD CLINIC - BROWERVILLEBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- BROWERVILLE BLADEBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Todd 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 Todd County.
Severity Distribution
across Todd County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Todd County, two things run higher than the national average across Todd County — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (282 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.
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 Todd 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 Todd County average
Your land is one point inside Todd County
Everything above resolves to Todd County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 605K 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 Todd County Average
Todd County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Todd County
- ●One soil character for all of Todd County
- ●Frost dates read at Todd County's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Todd County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Todd County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Todd County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Todd County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Todd County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Todd County average
How we know this about Todd 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 Todd County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Todd County
When does frost risk typically end in Todd County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Todd County typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Todd County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Todd County sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 28, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Todd County?
The federal record around Todd County is a meaningful one — 486 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (282), 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 Todd County's scale — its 4a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Todd 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 Todd County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Todd County's own scale — its own ~167-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 486 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Todd County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Todd County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Todd CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 486 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
- Todd County's boundary and the 604,862 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Todd County spans, North Central Hardwood Forests the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Todd County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Todd 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 Todd County — the ~167 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 Todd County's 604,862 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 486 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 Todd Countyread your own land →