Pelican Rapids, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pelican Rapids, 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 Pelican Rapids 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 Pelican Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pelican Rapids — the short answer
Pelican Rapids, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 170 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- 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
- ~170
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Pelican Rapids's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pelican Rapids's 170-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pelican Rapids
Each reading below is measured for Pelican Rapids itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPelican Rapids runs about 170 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
MeasuredPelican Rapids 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 Pelican Rapids is in
Pelican Rapids sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pelican Rapids's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in Pelican Rapids
Every plant below cleared Pelican Rapids's own zone 4a and its 170-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pelican Rapids?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (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. 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 Pelican Rapids
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pelican Rapids. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARNAM GOODYEAR TIREBrownfields · 550 ft
- Park Region CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- RESTAD STUARTBrownfields · 800 ft
- Bills AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Park Region Coop C-StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- RIVERFRONT ON MAINBrownfields · 900 ft
- DR DON LUNDRIGAN DDSBrownfields · 950 ft
- PELICAN DENTALBrownfields · 950 ft
- PARK REGION COOP OIL COBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Pelican TesoroUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ESSENTIA HEALTH ST. MARY'S PELICAN RAPIDSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- PELICAN VALLEY HEALTH CENTER/Brownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pelican Rapids'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 Pelican Rapids.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Pelican Rapids
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pelican Rapids
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pelican Rapids
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pelican Rapids, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 40 sites within ~10 miles of Pelican Rapids. 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 Pelican Rapids
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 Pelican Rapids average
Your land is one point inside Pelican Rapids
Everything above resolves to Pelican Rapids as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pelican Rapids Average
Pelican Rapids Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Pelican Rapids
- ●One soil character for all of Pelican Rapids
- ●Frost dates read at Pelican Rapids's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pelican Rapids's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pelican Rapids
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pelican Rapids averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pelican Rapids — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pelican Rapids average
How we know this about Pelican Rapids
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 Pelican Rapids’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 Pelican Rapids
When does frost risk typically end in Pelican Rapids?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican Rapids typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Pelican Rapids?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican Rapids 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 170 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pelican Rapids?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pelican Rapids sees about 170 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 29, about 135 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pelican Rapids?
The federal record around Pelican Rapids shows 98 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (40), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Pelican Rapids?
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 Pelican Rapids's scale — its 4a band and its 170-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pelican Rapids'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 Pelican Rapids’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pelican Rapids's own scale — its own ~170-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,654 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pelican Rapids's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pelican Rapids's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 13 and the ~170-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pelican Rapids, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pelican Rapids's boundary and the 1,654 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~170-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pelican Rapids'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 Pelican Rapids's 1,654 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otter Tail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pelican Rapids's 1,654 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pelican Rapids you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,654 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Pelican Rapids-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaPelican Rapids sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides