Wilkin County, in Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Wilkin 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
Wilkin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wilkin 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 Wilkin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilkin County — the short answer
Wilkin County, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 481K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 481K 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 Wilkin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilkin County's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Wilkin County
Across a year, Wilkin County accumulates about 2,234 growing degree days above 50°F, about 31 fewer than the middle Minnesota county — ahead of 39 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 Wilkin County
Across Wilkin County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Antler, Doran, and Mustinka are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally somewhat poorly drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Somewhat poorly drained
Prime farmland
63%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wilkin County
The USDA soil survey maps 62% of Wilkin County as somewhat poorly drained — but another 37% drains differently: 16% poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Antler is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Doran (16%) and Mustinka (7%).
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 Wilkin County
Each reading below is measured for Wilkin 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 Wilkin County are somewhat poorly drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Wilkin County runs about pH 7.0–7.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredWilkin County runs about 171 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
MeasuredWilkin 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 Wilkin County is in
Wilkin 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 Wilkin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wilkin County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 171-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 Wilkin County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Wilkin County
- monarch butterfly1,410 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wilkin County
USGS estimates 233,835 lb of Glyphosate on Wilkin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (101,190 lb) and Metolachlor-s (99,369 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 Wilkin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wilkin County — 118 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Wilkin 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 Wilkin County
Closest first, across Wilkin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bois De Sioux Golf ClubUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Dennis Auto RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Richs Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Wilkin County Highway DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Saint Francis HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Breckenridge School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- S & S ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Motor MagicUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Steinwand Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Wilkin TransportationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Red River Valley & Western Rr Co YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Mycogen Seeds - BreckenridgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilkin 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 Wilkin County.
Total Sites
118
across Wilkin County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Wilkin County
Severity Distribution
across Wilkin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilkin County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 56 sites across Wilkin County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Wilkin 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 Wilkin County average
Your land is one point inside Wilkin County
Everything above resolves to Wilkin County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 481K 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 Wilkin County Average
Wilkin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Wilkin County
- ●One soil character for all of Wilkin County
- ●Frost dates read at Wilkin County's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilkin County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wilkin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilkin County, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilkin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilkin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilkin County average
How we know this about Wilkin 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 Wilkin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wilkin County
When does frost risk typically end in Wilkin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilkin County typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
How long is the growing season in Wilkin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilkin County sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 28, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilkin County?
The federal record around Wilkin County shows 118 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (56), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Wilkin County's scale — its 4a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilkin 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 Wilkin County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wilkin County's own scale — its own ~171-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 118 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilkin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilkin County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Wilkin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 118 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wilkin County's boundary and the 480,664 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Wilkin County sitting wholly inside the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wilkin County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wilkin 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 Wilkin County — the ~171 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 Wilkin County's 480,664 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 118 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 Wilkin Countyread your own land →