Kasota, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kasota, 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 Kasota 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 Kasota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kasota — the short answer
Kasota, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 796 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 796 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 Kasota's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kasota's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kasota
Each reading below is measured for Kasota itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKasota runs about 181 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
MeasuredKasota 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 Kasota is in
Kasota sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kasota's own centroid rather than borrowed from Le Sueur County.
What Grows in Kasota
Every plant below cleared Kasota's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kasota?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Kasota
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kasota. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Door Engineering & Mfg CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- DOOR ENGINEERINGToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- DOOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 450 ft
- DOOR ENGINEERING & MANUFACTURINGToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- VETTER SALES & SERVICE LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- LAKELAND INDUSTRIAL CHEMICALSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- KASOTA MUNICIPAL WELL, SA270Superfund · 2000 ft
- KASOTA CITY OFBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CROP PRODUCTION SERVICES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- United Agri-ProductsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SK AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- ST PETER REGIONAL TREATMENT CENTERBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kasota'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 Kasota.
Total Sites
648
within ~10 miles of Kasota
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kasota
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kasota
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kasota, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kasota — CAFO (10 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (49 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Kasota
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 Kasota average
Your land is one point inside Kasota
Everything above resolves to Kasota as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 796 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 Kasota Average
Kasota Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Kasota
- ●One soil character for all of Kasota
- ●Frost dates read at Kasota's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kasota's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kasota
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kasota, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kasota averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kasota — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kasota average
How we know this about Kasota
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 Kasota’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 Kasota
When does frost risk typically end in Kasota?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kasota typically lands around Apr 19, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Kasota?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kasota typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kasota?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kasota sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 3, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kasota?
The federal record around Kasota is a meaningful one — 648 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (367), 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 Kasota?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kasota's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kasota'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 Kasota’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kasota's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 796 acres it covers and 648 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kasota's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kasota's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 19 and Oct 17 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 648 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kasota, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kasota's boundary and the 796 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kasota'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 Kasota's 796 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Le Sueur County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Le Sueur 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 Le Sueur County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kasota's 796 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kasota you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 796 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 Kasota-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaKasota sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides