North Branch, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — 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 North Branch, 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 North Branch 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 North Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Branch — the short answer
North Branch, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 24K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 24K 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 North Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Branch's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Branch
Each reading below is measured for North Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Branch runs about 169 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
MeasuredNorth Branch 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 North Branch is in
North Branch sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at North Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chisago County.
What Grows in North Branch
Every plant below cleared North Branch's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Branch?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 14 — 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 North Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- North BranchPFAS · 25 ft
- 608967Nitrate · 1600 ft
- 667043Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 597149Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 658669Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH OF NORTH BRANCHBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Product Fabricators Inc Plant 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ISD 138 NORTH BRANCH HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- PRODUCT FABRICATORS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- 172878Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Us WestUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- NORTH BRANCH DENTALBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Branch'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 North Branch.
Total Sites
266
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Branch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 102 sites within ~10 miles of North Branch. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 North Branch
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 North Branch average
Your land is one point inside North Branch
Everything above resolves to North Branch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 24K 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 North Branch Average
North Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across North Branch
- ●One soil character for all of North Branch
- ●Frost dates read at North Branch's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Branch's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Branch, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Branch average
How we know this about North Branch
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 North Branch’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 North Branch
When does frost risk typically end in North Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Branch 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 North Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Branch typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Branch sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Sep 30, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Branch?
The federal record around North Branch is a meaningful one — 266 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest PFAS 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 North Branch?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Branch's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Branch'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 North Branch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North Branch's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 23,884 acres it covers and 266 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Branch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 14 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 266 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Branch, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Branch's boundary and the 23,884 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Branch'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 North Branch's 23,884 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chisago County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chisago 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 Chisago County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Branch's 23,884 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 23,884 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 North Branch-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaNorth Branch sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides