Pipestone, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Pipestone, 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 Pipestone 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 Pipestone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pipestone — the short answer
Pipestone, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- 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 4b is Pipestone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pipestone's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pipestone
Each reading below is measured for Pipestone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPipestone runs about 171 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
MeasuredPipestone 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 Pipestone is in
Pipestone sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pipestone's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Pipestone County is mostly Northern Glaciated Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pipestone
Every plant below cleared Pipestone's own zone 4b and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pipestone?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Pipestone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pipestone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Backlund Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Dot - Truck Station #91502Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- C.E. Will Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FREEDOM OIL PRODUCTS MN0005Brownfields · 1100 ft
- LEWIS FAMILY DRUG #46Brownfields · 1200 ft
- DAHL MOTORS LLCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- STURDEVANTS AUTO SUPPLY INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- PIPESTONE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- J & D AUTO BODYBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Luann's Gas and MoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Cellular OneUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- G & S BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pipestone'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 Pipestone.
Total Sites
123
within ~10 miles of Pipestone
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pipestone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pipestone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pipestone, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Pipestone. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Pipestone
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 Pipestone average
Your land is one point inside Pipestone
Everything above resolves to Pipestone 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 Pipestone Average
Pipestone Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Pipestone
- ●One soil character for all of Pipestone
- ●Frost dates read at Pipestone's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pipestone's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pipestone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pipestone, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pipestone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pipestone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pipestone average
How we know this about Pipestone
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 Pipestone’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 Pipestone
When does frost risk typically end in Pipestone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pipestone typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Pipestone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pipestone typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pipestone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pipestone sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Sep 27, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pipestone?
The federal record around Pipestone is a meaningful one — 123 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (39), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Pipestone?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pipestone's scale — its 4b band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pipestone'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 Pipestone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pipestone's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,653 acres it covers and 123 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pipestone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pipestone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 11 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 123 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pipestone, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pipestone's boundary and the 2,653 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pipestone sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pipestone's 2,653 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pipestone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pipestone 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 Pipestone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pipestone's 2,653 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pipestone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,653 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Pipestone-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaPipestone sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.