Elmore, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Elmore, 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 Elmore 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 Elmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elmore — the short answer
Elmore, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 541 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- 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
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 541 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 5a is Elmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elmore's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elmore
Each reading below is measured for Elmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredElmore runs about 185 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
MeasuredElmore sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Elmore is in
Elmore sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Faribault County.
What Grows in Elmore
Every plant below cleared Elmore's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elmore?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Elmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K&H EnergyUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Webb ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- JAKE'S BODY SHOPBrownfields · 550 ft
- Dahl TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- ELMORE TRUCK ACCESSORIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 650 ft
- ELMORE AG & AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 750 ft
- ELMORE CITY OFBrownfields · 1100 ft
- 101N27W33CBDCAC01 Elmore 3 0000112236Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Elmore Truck Accessories Inc - ElmoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Cargill Inc (grain Elevator)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Gunthers Foodland of ElmoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- City GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elmore'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 Elmore.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Elmore
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elmore, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Elmore. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Elmore
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 Elmore average
Your land is one point inside Elmore
Everything above resolves to Elmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 541 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 Elmore Average
Elmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Elmore
- ●One soil character for all of Elmore
- ●Frost dates read at Elmore's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elmore's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elmore, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elmore average
How we know this about Elmore
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 Elmore’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 Elmore
When does frost risk typically end in Elmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elmore typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Elmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elmore 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 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elmore sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 4, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elmore?
The federal record around Elmore shows 127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Elmore?
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 Elmore's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elmore'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 Elmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Elmore's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 541 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Elmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 18 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elmore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elmore's boundary and the 541 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elmore'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 Elmore's 541 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Faribault County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Faribault 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 Faribault County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elmore's 541 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 541 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 Elmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaElmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides