Fergus Falls, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fergus Falls, 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 Fergus Falls 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 Fergus Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fergus Falls — the short answer
Fergus Falls, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 173 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~173
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Fergus Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fergus Falls's 173-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fergus Falls
Each reading below is measured for Fergus Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFergus Falls 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
MeasuredFergus Falls 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 Fergus Falls is in
Fergus Falls sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fergus Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in Fergus Falls
Every plant below cleared Fergus Falls's own zone 4a and its 173-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fergus Falls?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Fergus Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fergus Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fergus Tire Center IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- FERGUS TIRE CENTER INCBrownfields · 200 ft
- Former Fergus Oil (lyle Mcmanus)Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- US POST OFFICE FEDERAL GOVERNBrownfields · 650 ft
- Worners Auto Sales IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Crown Auto IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WALGREEN'S STORE 12592Brownfields · 900 ft
- LAKE REGION DENTAL CENTERBrownfields · 950 ft
- Vans Muffler Shop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Former Ottertail Coop Oils Inc StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Clark Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OLSON AUTO ELECTRIC SERVICE IBrownfields · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fergus Falls'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 Fergus Falls.
Total Sites
207
within ~10 miles of Fergus Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fergus Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fergus Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Fergus Falls
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 Fergus Falls average
Your land is one point inside Fergus Falls
Everything above resolves to Fergus Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Fergus Falls Average
Fergus Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Fergus Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Fergus Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Fergus Falls's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fergus Falls's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fergus Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fergus Falls, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fergus Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fergus Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fergus Falls average
How we know this about Fergus Falls
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 Fergus Falls’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 Fergus Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Fergus Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fergus Falls typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Fergus Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fergus Falls 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 173 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fergus Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fergus Falls sees about 173 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Sep 30, about 138 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fergus Falls?
The federal record around Fergus Falls is a meaningful one — 207 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (89), 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 Fergus Falls?
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 Fergus Falls's scale — its 4a band and its 173-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fergus Falls'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 Fergus Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fergus Falls's own scale — its own ~173-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,208 acres it covers and 207 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fergus Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fergus Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 14 and the ~173-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 207 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fergus Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fergus Falls's boundary and the 9,208 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~173-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fergus Falls'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 Fergus Falls's 9,208 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otter Tail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fergus Falls's 9,208 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fergus Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,208 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 Fergus Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaFergus Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.