Wabasha County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Wabasha County lies within the Driftless Area — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Wabasha County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wabasha 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 Wabasha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wabasha County — the short answer
Wabasha County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 335K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 335K 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 Wabasha County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wabasha County's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Wabasha County
Across a year, Wabasha County accumulates about 2,382 growing degree days above 50°F, about 117 more than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 64 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 Wabasha County
Across Wabasha County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Hersey, Mt. Carroll, and Downs are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.2–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
34%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wabasha County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Wabasha County as well drained — but another 20% drains differently: 12% moderately well drained, 3% excessively drained.
Hersey is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Mt. Carroll (17%) and Downs (15%).
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 Wabasha County
Each reading below is measured for Wabasha 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 Wabasha 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 Wabasha County runs about pH 6.2–6.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredWabasha 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWabasha 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 Wabasha County is in
Wabasha County sits in the Driftless Area — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Wabasha County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wabasha 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 Wabasha 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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Wabasha County
- Japanese beetle3 documented records
- monarch butterfly278 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wabasha County
USGS estimates 126,903 lb of Glyphosate on Wabasha County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Acetochlor (72,727 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (48,767 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 Wabasha County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wabasha County — 398 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Wabasha 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 Wabasha County
Closest first, across Wabasha County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hammond StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- MILLVILLE SALVAGEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 642411Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 218870Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- 218822Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- Millville Feed MillUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SCOTCH PRAIRIE FARM LLCCAFO · 3.5 mi
- 617011Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- APPELS SERVICEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- 597777Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 108N11W17BAD 01 PlainviewNitrate · 4.2 mi
- Wabasha County Highway ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wabasha 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 Wabasha County.
Total Sites
398
across Wabasha County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Wabasha County
Severity Distribution
across Wabasha County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wabasha County, two things run higher than the national average across Wabasha County — CAFO (9 sites) and Nitrate (214 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Wabasha 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 Wabasha County average
Your land is one point inside Wabasha County
Everything above resolves to Wabasha County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 335K 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 Wabasha County Average
Wabasha County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Wabasha County
- ●One soil character for all of Wabasha County
- ●Frost dates read at Wabasha County's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wabasha County's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wabasha County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wabasha County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wabasha County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wabasha County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wabasha County average
How we know this about Wabasha 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 Wabasha County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wabasha County
When does frost risk typically end in Wabasha County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wabasha County typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
How long is the growing season in Wabasha County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wabasha County sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 1, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wabasha County?
The federal record around Wabasha County is a meaningful one — 398 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (214), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wabasha County's scale — its 4b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wabasha 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 Wabasha County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wabasha County's own scale — its own ~175-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 398 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wabasha County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wabasha 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 Wabasha CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 398 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wabasha County's boundary and the 334,697 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wabasha County sitting wholly inside the Driftless AreaUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wabasha County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wabasha 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 Wabasha 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 Wabasha County's 334,697 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 398 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 Wabasha Countyread your own land →