Dundas, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Dundas, 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 Dundas 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 Dundas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dundas — the short answer
Dundas, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Dundas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dundas's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dundas
Each reading below is measured for Dundas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDundas runs about 180 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
MeasuredDundas 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 Dundas is in
Dundas sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dundas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Dundas
Every plant below cleared Dundas's own zone 4b and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dundas?
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 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 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Dundas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dundas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MODERN THERAPEUTICS PLLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- KMART STORE 3777Brownfields · 1700 ft
- Korner Mart-dundasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JUNK TRUCK MNBrownfields · 2000 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #2912Brownfields · 2300 ft
- MECHANICAL SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- BETTER AIR LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- COLLEGE CITY BEVERAGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CUB FOODS 1637Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- MNDOT DISTRICT 6 NORTHFIELDBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- TARGET STORE T1211Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CVS PHARMACY 16566Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dundas'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 Dundas.
Total Sites
481
within ~10 miles of Dundas
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dundas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dundas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dundas, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Dundas. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Dundas
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 Dundas average
Your land is one point inside Dundas
Everything above resolves to Dundas as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Dundas Average
Dundas Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Dundas
- ●One soil character for all of Dundas
- ●Frost dates read at Dundas's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dundas's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dundas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dundas, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dundas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dundas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dundas average
How we know this about Dundas
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 Dundas’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 Dundas
When does frost risk typically end in Dundas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dundas 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 Dundas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dundas typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dundas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dundas sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 4, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dundas?
The federal record around Dundas is a meaningful one — 481 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (208), the nearest Brownfields 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dundas?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dundas's scale — its 4b band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dundas'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 Dundas’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dundas's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,182 acres it covers and 481 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dundas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dundas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 18 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 481 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dundas, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dundas's boundary and the 1,182 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dundas's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dundas's 1,182 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dundas's 1,182 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dundas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,182 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Dundas-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaDundas sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides