Cyrus, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cyrus, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cyrus lot. 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 Cyrus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cyrus — the short answer
Cyrus, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 170 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 170 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Cyrus's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cyrus's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cyrus
Each reading below is measured for Cyrus itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCyrus runs about 173 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
MeasuredCyrus 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 Cyrus is in
Cyrus sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cyrus's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pope County is mostly North Central Hardwood Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cyrus
Every plant below cleared Cyrus's own zone 4b and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cyrus?
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 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 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cyrus
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cyrus. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Amoco Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Odds-N-Ends ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CYRUS PUBLIC SCHOOLBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 611929Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 562314Nitrate · 2.8 mi
- 546495Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- CANADIAN CONNECTION - SEC 12CAFO · 3.4 mi
- 577133Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- 512895Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- CANADIAN CONNECTION - SEC 14CAFO · 3.7 mi
- 606409Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- 563309Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cyrus'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 Cyrus.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cyrus
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cyrus
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cyrus, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cyrus — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (68 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 Cyrus
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 Cyrus average
Your land is one point inside Cyrus
Everything above resolves to Cyrus as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 170 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Cyrus Average
Cyrus Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Cyrus
- ●One soil character for all of Cyrus
- ●Frost dates read at Cyrus's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cyrus's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cyrus
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cyrus, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cyrus averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cyrus — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cyrus average
How we know this about Cyrus
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cyrus’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cyrus
When does frost risk typically end in Cyrus?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cyrus 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.
When is the first frost in Cyrus?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cyrus typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cyrus?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cyrus sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Sep 27, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cyrus?
The federal record around Cyrus is a meaningful one — 169 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cyrus?
From about Sep 11 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cyrus's scale — its 4b band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cyrus's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cyrus’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cyrus's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 170 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cyrus's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cyrus's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 11 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cyrus, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cyrus's boundary and the 170 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cyrus sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cyrus's 170 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pope County
- The growing challenges every Minnesota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Minnesota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Pope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cyrus's 170 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cyrus you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 170 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cyrus-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaCyrus sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides