Porter, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Porter, 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 Porter 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 Porter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Porter — the short answer
Porter, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Porter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Porter's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Porter
Each reading below is measured for Porter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPorter runs about 181 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
MeasuredPorter 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 Porter is in
Porter sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Porter's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Yellow Medicine County is mostly Western Corn Belt Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Porter
Every plant below cleared Porter's own zone 5a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Porter?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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 Porter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Porter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- A TO Z RECYCLEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- A-Z RECYCLEBrownfields · 2100 ft
- SMI & HYDRAULICS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MOELLER BODY & PAINTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 113N44W09BCB 01 M DillonNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 114N44W22BBD 01 KevjenNitrate · 2.2 mi
- Porter Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- 507242Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 212831Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- 113N44W19BAC 01 JacobsonNitrate · 4.5 mi
- 113N44W13CDD 01 DowningNitrate · 4.9 mi
- 113N45W10DCC 01 PersoonNitrate · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Porter'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 Porter.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Porter
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Porter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Porter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Porter, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Porter — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (42 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Porter
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 Porter average
Your land is one point inside Porter
Everything above resolves to Porter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Porter Average
Porter Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Porter
- ●One soil character for all of Porter
- ●Frost dates read at Porter's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Porter's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Porter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Porter, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Porter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Porter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Porter average
How we know this about Porter
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 Porter’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 Porter
When does frost risk typically end in Porter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Porter typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Porter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Porter 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Porter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Porter sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Porter?
The federal record around Porter shows 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Porter?
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 Porter's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Porter'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 Porter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Porter's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,277 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Porter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Porter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Porter, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Porter's boundary and the 1,277 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Porter sits in the Northern Glaciated 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 Porter's 1,277 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yellow Medicine County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yellow Medicine 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 Yellow Medicine County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Porter's 1,277 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Porter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,277 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Porter-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaPorter sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.