Morristown, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Morristown, 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 Morristown 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 Morristown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Morristown — the short answer
Morristown, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 719 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~179
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 719 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 4b is Morristown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morristown's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Morristown
Each reading below is measured for Morristown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMorristown runs about 179 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
MeasuredMorristown sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 Morristown is in
Morristown sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Morristown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Morristown
Every plant below cleared Morristown's own zone 4b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Morristown?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Morristown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Morristown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NORDMEIER BROS INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- WATERVILLE ELYSIAN MORRISTOWN SCHOOLBrownfields · 500 ft
- Nordmeier Bros IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Morris MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- RUTZ PIPE ORGAN COBrownfields · 1400 ft
- 509193Nitrate · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL #21939Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- Rice County GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Timm's Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PDCJ-C1 109N22W15ACDDDD01 0000451200Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 511310Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- MUELLERS FURNITURE RESTORATIONBrownfields · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morristown'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 Morristown.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Morristown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Morristown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morristown, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 8 sites within ~10 miles of Morristown. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Morristown
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 Morristown average
Your land is one point inside Morristown
Everything above resolves to Morristown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 719 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 Morristown Average
Morristown Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Morristown
- ●One soil character for all of Morristown
- ●Frost dates read at Morristown's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morristown's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Morristown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morristown, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morristown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morristown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morristown average
How we know this about Morristown
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 Morristown’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 Morristown
When does frost risk typically end in Morristown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morristown typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Morristown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Morristown typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Morristown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morristown sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 2, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morristown?
The federal record around Morristown is a meaningful one — 320 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (123), 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 Morristown?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Morristown's scale — its 4b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morristown'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 Morristown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Morristown's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 719 acres it covers and 320 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morristown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morristown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 16 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 320 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Morristown, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Morristown's boundary and the 719 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Morristown'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 Morristown's 719 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Morristown's 719 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Morristown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 719 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 Morristown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaMorristown sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides