Halstad, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Halstad, 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 Halstad 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 Halstad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Halstad — the short answer
Halstad, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 167 days between hard freezes, across 232 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~167
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 232 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 Halstad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Halstad's 167-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Halstad
Each reading below is measured for Halstad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHalstad runs about 167 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
MeasuredHalstad 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 Halstad is in
Halstad sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Halstad's own centroid rather than borrowed from Norman County.
What Grows in Halstad
Every plant below cleared Halstad's own zone 4a and its 167-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Halstad?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 12 — 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 Halstad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Halstad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HALSTAD MUNICIPAL UTILITIESBrownfields · 750 ft
- ISD 2527 NORMAN COUNTY WEST HBrownfields · 750 ft
- HALSTAD ELEVATOR COMPANY, INC.Brownfields · 950 ft
- RED RIVER VALLEY COOP ASSOC POWER ASSOCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Halstad CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SANFORD CLINICBrownfields · 1900 ft
- 145N49W25ABA 01 HalstadNitrate · 0.8 mi
- NORMAN COUNTY HIGHWAY DEPT 26Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- 145N48W16DAA 01 S AarstadNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 145-049-13BDCNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 145-049-20DAANitrate · 4.6 mi
- Norman County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Halstad'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 Halstad.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Halstad
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Halstad
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Halstad, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Halstad. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Halstad
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 Halstad average
Your land is one point inside Halstad
Everything above resolves to Halstad as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 232 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 Halstad Average
Halstad Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Halstad
- ●One soil character for all of Halstad
- ●Frost dates read at Halstad's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Halstad's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Halstad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Halstad, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Halstad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Halstad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Halstad average
How we know this about Halstad
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 Halstad’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 Halstad
When does frost risk typically end in Halstad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Halstad typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Halstad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Halstad typically arrives around Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 28, so the watching starts about Sep 12 — about 167 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Halstad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Halstad sees about 167 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 28, about 132 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Halstad?
The federal record around Halstad shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Halstad?
From about Sep 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Halstad's scale — its 4a band and its 167-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Halstad'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 Halstad’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Halstad's own scale — its own ~167-day season between 28°F freezes, the 232 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Halstad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Halstad's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 12 and the ~167-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Halstad, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Halstad's boundary and the 232 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~167-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Halstad's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Halstad's 232 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Norman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Norman 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 Norman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Halstad's 232 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Halstad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 232 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Halstad-wide figureread your own land →
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