Dilworth, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Dilworth, 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 Dilworth 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 Dilworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dilworth — the short answer
Dilworth, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 4a is Dilworth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dilworth's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dilworth
Each reading below is measured for Dilworth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDilworth runs about 170 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
MeasuredDilworth 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 Dilworth is in
Dilworth sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dilworth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Dilworth
Every plant below cleared Dilworth's own zone 4a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dilworth?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Dilworth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dilworth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DilworthPFAS · 0 ft
- MNDOT DISTRICT 4A DILWORTH TRBrownfields · 950 ft
- Ryder Automotive Carrier ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Food-n-fuel #1525Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Allied Automotive GroupUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Casey's General Store #2207Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BNSF Dilworth YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Caseys General Store #3362Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ISD 2164 DILWORTH-GLYNDON-FELTON SCHOOLSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- Jerrys TaxidermyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TR SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FM ASPHALT LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dilworth'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 Dilworth.
Total Sites
889
within ~10 miles of Dilworth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dilworth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dilworth
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Dilworth
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 Dilworth average
Your land is one point inside Dilworth
Everything above resolves to Dilworth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dilworth Average
Dilworth Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Dilworth
- ●One soil character for all of Dilworth
- ●Frost dates read at Dilworth's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dilworth's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dilworth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dilworth, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dilworth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dilworth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dilworth average
How we know this about Dilworth
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 Dilworth’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 Dilworth
When does frost risk typically end in Dilworth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dilworth typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Dilworth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dilworth typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dilworth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dilworth sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 30, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dilworth?
The federal record around Dilworth is a meaningful one — 889 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (418), the nearest PFAS 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 Dilworth?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dilworth's scale — its 4a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dilworth'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 Dilworth’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dilworth's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,215 acres it covers and 889 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dilworth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dilworth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 14 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 889 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dilworth, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dilworth's boundary and the 2,215 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dilworth's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dilworth's 2,215 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dilworth's 2,215 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dilworth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,215 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Dilworth-wide figureread your own land →
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