Miltona, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Miltona, 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 Miltona 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 Miltona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Miltona — the short answer
Miltona, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 429 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 429 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 Miltona's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Miltona's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Miltona
Each reading below is measured for Miltona itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMiltona runs about 174 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
MeasuredMiltona 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 Miltona is in
Miltona sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Miltona's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Miltona
Every plant below cleared Miltona's own zone 4a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Miltona?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Miltona
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Miltona. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 556856Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 481573Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- LAKE MILTONA GOLF CLUBBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- West Central Mn Petroleum Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Gas Mart of MiltonaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Former Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Pats Miltona ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 130N37W21BBB 01 GlaesemanNitrate · 3.1 mi
- Former Carstensen RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 130N36W16CAB 01 KoepNitrate · 3.6 mi
- 471969Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 659311Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Miltona'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 Miltona.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Miltona
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Miltona
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Miltona
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Miltona, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 60 sites within ~10 miles of Miltona. 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 Miltona
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 Miltona average
Your land is one point inside Miltona
Everything above resolves to Miltona as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 429 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 Miltona Average
Miltona Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Miltona
- ●One soil character for all of Miltona
- ●Frost dates read at Miltona's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Miltona's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Miltona
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Miltona, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Miltona averages can't show:
We read public map data around Miltona — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Miltona average
How we know this about Miltona
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 Miltona’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 Miltona
When does frost risk typically end in Miltona?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Miltona typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Miltona?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Miltona typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Miltona?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Miltona sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 29, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Miltona?
The federal record around Miltona shows 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Miltona?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Miltona's scale — its 4a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Miltona'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 Miltona’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Miltona's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 429 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Miltona's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Miltona's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 13 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Miltona, the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Miltona's boundary and the 429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Miltona'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 Miltona's 429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Miltona's 429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Miltona you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.7 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 Miltona-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMiltona sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides