Pine Bend, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pine Bend, 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 Pine Bend 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 Pine Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pine Bend — the short answer
Pine Bend, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 804 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 804 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 3b is Pine Bend's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Bend's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Bend
Each reading below is measured for Pine Bend itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Bend runs about 159 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
MeasuredPine Bend sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Pine Bend is in
Pine Bend sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Pine Bend's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mahnomen County is mostly Lake Agassiz Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Bend
Every plant below cleared Pine Bend's own zone 3b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Bend?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Pine Bend
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Bend. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 145N38W04CBB 01Nitrate · 2300 ft
- MM09 146N39W26CBBCBA01 0000221673Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 145N39W16DAD 01 E GitzNitrate · 3.7 mi
- 520679Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- MM10 146N39W02BDAABD01 0000154125Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- MM08 144N39W02AAABBD01 0000124504Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- Lengby Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- Bud's RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- BAGLEY LIVESTOCK EXCHANGECAFO · 8.1 mi
- 459830Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- 515336Nitrate · 8.6 mi
- Petes RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Bend'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 Pine Bend.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Pine Bend
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Bend
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Bend
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Bend, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Pine Bend. 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 Pine Bend
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 Pine Bend average
Your land is one point inside Pine Bend
Everything above resolves to Pine Bend as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 804 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 town 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 Pine Bend Average
Pine Bend Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Pine Bend
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Bend
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Bend's scale: May 2 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Bend's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Bend
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Bend, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Bend averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Bend — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Bend average
How we know this about Pine Bend
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Pine Bend’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Pine Bend
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Bend?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Bend typically lands around May 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Pine Bend?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Bend typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Bend?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Bend sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 2 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 23 to Sep 24, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Bend?
The federal record around Pine Bend is light — 35 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pine Bend?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Bend's scale — its 3b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Bend'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 Pine Bend’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Bend's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 804 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Bend's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Bend's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 2 and Oct 8 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Bend, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Bend's boundary and the 804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine Bend sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Bend's 804 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mahnomen County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mahnomen 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 Mahnomen County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Bend's 804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Bend you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Pine Bend-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaPine Bend sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides