Northrop, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Northrop, 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 Northrop 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 Northrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Northrop — the short answer
Northrop, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 185 days between hard freezes, across 84 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~185
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 84 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 Northrop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northrop's 185-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northrop
Each reading below is measured for Northrop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthrop runs about 185 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
MeasuredNorthrop 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 Northrop is in
Northrop sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Northrop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martin County.
What Grows in Northrop
Every plant below cleared Northrop's own zone 5a and its 185-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Northrop?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Northrop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northrop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Poppe Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- 516474Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- KOSBAB - HOME FARMCAFO · 1.1 mi
- ITC MIDWEST - RUTLANDBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MULTI-SITE - KOSBABCAFO · 1.3 mi
- HAM-IT-UP HOG FARM INCCAFO · 1.5 mi
- MULTI-SITE - RON FOWLER FARMCAFO · 1.6 mi
- RON FOWLER - BIN SITECAFO · 1.7 mi
- RON FOWLER - 2 BARN SITECAFO · 2.0 mi
- RON FOWLER - 4 BARN SITECAFO · 2.2 mi
- 131103Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- SIGNATURE SWINE INCCAFO · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Northrop'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 Northrop.
Total Sites
239
within ~10 miles of Northrop
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northrop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northrop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Northrop, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Northrop. 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 Northrop
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 Northrop average
Your land is one point inside Northrop
Everything above resolves to Northrop as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 84 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 Northrop Average
Northrop Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Northrop
- ●One soil character for all of Northrop
- ●Frost dates read at Northrop's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northrop's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northrop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northrop, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northrop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northrop average
How we know this about Northrop
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 Northrop’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 Northrop
When does frost risk typically end in Northrop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northrop typically lands around Apr 16, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Northrop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northrop typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 185 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northrop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northrop sees about 185 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 4, about 150 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northrop?
The federal record around Northrop is a meaningful one — 239 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), 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 Northrop?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northrop's scale — its 5a band and its 185-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northrop'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 Northrop’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Northrop's own scale — its own ~185-day season between 28°F freezes, the 84 acres it covers and 239 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northrop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northrop's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 18 and the ~185-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northrop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northrop's boundary and the 84 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~185-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northrop's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northrop's 84 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martin 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 Martin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northrop's 84 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northrop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 84 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 Northrop-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaNorthrop sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides