Pine City, 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.
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 City, 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 City 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 City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine City — the short answer
Pine City, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- 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
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Pine City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine City's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine City
Each reading below is measured for Pine City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine City runs about 161 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 City 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 Pine City is in
Pine City sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine City's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pine County is mostly Northern Lakes and Forests. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine City
Every plant below cleared Pine City's own zone 4a and its 161-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine City?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (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 City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAKA CORPBrownfields · 400 ft
- ATSCOTT MANUFACTURING CO INCBrownfields · 650 ft
- SHAFER ELECTRONICS CO - PINEBrownfields · 650 ft
- PINE TOWNE SPORTSBrownfields · 700 ft
- NELSON RECYCLING INCBrownfields · 700 ft
- STANS RADIATOR SERVICE LLCBrownfields · 750 ft
- MERCURY TECHNOLOGIES OF MINNESOTA INCBrownfields · 1000 ft
- BROEKEMA BELTWAY USA INC - PINE CITYBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Pine County Public Works #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- M&M MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- PINE COUNTY PUBLIC WORKS #1Brownfields · 1300 ft
- GREAT RIVER ENERGY - ROCK LAKEBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine City'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 City.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Pine City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 92 sites within ~10 miles of Pine City. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 City
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 City average
Your land is one point inside Pine City
Everything above resolves to Pine City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Pine City Average
Pine City Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Pine City
- ●One soil character for all of Pine City
- ●Frost dates read at Pine City's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine City's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine City, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine City average
How we know this about Pine City
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 Pine City’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 Pine City
When does frost risk typically end in Pine City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine City typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Pine City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine City 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 161 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine City sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 24, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine City?
The federal record around Pine City shows 183 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (92), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pine City?
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 City's scale — its 4a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine City'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 City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine City's own scale — its own ~161-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,808 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 8 and the ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine City, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine City's boundary and the 2,808 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine City sits in the North Central Hardwood 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 City's 2,808 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pine 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 Pine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine City's 2,808 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,808 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 Pine City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaPine City sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides