De Graff, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in De Graff, 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 De Graff 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 De Graff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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De Graff — the short answer
De Graff, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 529 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- 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
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 529 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 De Graff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against De Graff's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in De Graff
Each reading below is measured for De Graff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDe Graff runs about 172 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
MeasuredDe Graff 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 De Graff is in
De Graff sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at De Graff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Swift County.
What Grows in De Graff
Every plant below cleared De Graff's own zone 4b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in De Graff?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near De Graff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of De Graff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN`S BODY SHOP - DE GRAFFBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Former Degraff Station - Regan OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Former Hardware StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HUBBARD MILLING CO.Toxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- GUY'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KOCH NITROGEN COMPANY - MURDOCK TERMINALBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- Clements StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Dooley's Petroleum IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- RIVERVIEW LLP - DUBLIN DAIRYCAFO · 3.4 mi
- 469491Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 102223Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- DOOLEY'S PETROLEUM INCBrownfields · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from De Graff'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 De Graff.
Total Sites
117
within ~10 miles of De Graff
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of De Graff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of De Graff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around De Graff, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of De Graff — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (32 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 De Graff
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 De Graff average
Your land is one point inside De Graff
Everything above resolves to De Graff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 529 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 De Graff Average
De Graff Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across De Graff
- ●One soil character for all of De Graff
- ●Frost dates read at De Graff's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not De Graff's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in De Graff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in De Graff, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that De Graff averages can't show:
We read public map data around De Graff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the De Graff average
How we know this about De Graff
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 De Graff’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 De Graff
When does frost risk typically end in De Graff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in De Graff typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in De Graff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in De Graff 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 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in De Graff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, De Graff sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 27, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in De Graff?
The federal record around De Graff shows 117 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (37), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in De Graff?
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 De Graff's scale — its 4b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of De Graff'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 De Graff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at De Graff's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 529 acres it covers and 117 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- De Graff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- De Graff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 11 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 117 documented contamination sites on the federal record near De Graff, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- De Graff's boundary and the 529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at De Graff's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so De Graff's 529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Swift County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Swift 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 Swift County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among De Graff's 529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of De Graff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles 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 De Graff-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaDe Graff sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.