Mora, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mora, 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 Mora 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 Mora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mora — the short answer
Mora, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Mora's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mora's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mora
Each reading below is measured for Mora itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMora runs about 161 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
MeasuredMora 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 Mora is in
Mora sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mora's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kanabec County.
What Grows in Mora
Every plant below cleared Mora's own zone 4a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mora?
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 Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — 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 Mora
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mora. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOLLAR GENERAL #20687Brownfields · 400 ft
- FORMER TOWN & COUNTRY OIL/CAFE/BAIT SHOPBrownfields · 550 ft
- MORA CITY OFBrownfields · 550 ft
- Mora Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MORA BUS GARAGEBrownfields · 600 ft
- Town & Country OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GLEN'S TIRE OPERATIONS INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- 039 2411DCBNitrate · 1000 ft
- KANABEC HOSPITALBrownfields · 1100 ft
- FORRESTER BOX CO INCToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 4711Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Mndot District 3b MoraUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mora'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 Mora.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Mora
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mora
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mora
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 Mora
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 Mora average
Your land is one point inside Mora
Everything above resolves to Mora as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Mora Average
Mora Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Mora
- ●One soil character for all of Mora
- ●Frost dates read at Mora's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mora's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mora
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mora, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mora averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mora — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mora average
How we know this about Mora
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 Mora’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 Mora
When does frost risk typically end in Mora?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mora typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Mora?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mora typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mora?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mora sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 23, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mora?
The federal record around Mora is a meaningful one — 124 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (54), the nearest Brownfields 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 Mora?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mora's scale — its 4a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mora'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 Mora’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mora's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,305 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mora's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mora's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 7 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mora, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mora's boundary and the 3,305 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mora'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 Mora's 3,305 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kanabec County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kanabec 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 Kanabec County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mora's 3,305 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mora you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,305 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Mora-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMora sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides