Proctor, 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.
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 Proctor, 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 Proctor 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 Proctor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Proctor — the short answer
Proctor, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- 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 4b is Proctor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Proctor's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Proctor
Each reading below is measured for Proctor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredProctor runs about 169 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
MeasuredProctor 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 Proctor is in
Proctor sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Proctor's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Louis County.
What Grows in Proctor
Every plant below cleared Proctor's own zone 4b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Proctor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 16 — 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 Proctor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Proctor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PROCTOR CITY OF STREET DEPTBrownfields · 450 ft
- ESSENTIA HEALTH DULUTH - 1ST ST PHARMACYBrownfields · 800 ft
- PROCTOR CITY OFBrownfields · 1100 ft
- DYNAMIC STRUCTURAL STEELToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- WISCONSIN CENTRAL LTD - PROCTOR YARDBrownfields · 1400 ft
- SINNOTT BLACKTOP LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- DEWALL SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Seven Eleven #608 (former Spur)Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Troy's BP AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Rb & B HeatingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- AMERICAN INDIAN COMMUNITY HOUSING ORGANIZATIONBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Proctor MilkhouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Proctor'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 Proctor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Proctor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Proctor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Proctor, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 856 sites within ~10 miles of Proctor. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Proctor
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 Proctor average
Your land is one point inside Proctor
Everything above resolves to Proctor 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 Proctor Average
Proctor Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Proctor
- ●One soil character for all of Proctor
- ●Frost dates read at Proctor's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Proctor's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Proctor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Proctor, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Proctor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Proctor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Proctor average
How we know this about Proctor
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 Proctor’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 Proctor
When does frost risk typically end in Proctor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Proctor 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 Proctor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Proctor typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Proctor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Proctor sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 2, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Proctor?
The federal record around Proctor is a meaningful one — 1,441 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (856), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Proctor?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Proctor's scale — its 4b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Proctor'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 Proctor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Proctor's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,151 acres it covers and 1,441 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Proctor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Proctor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 16 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,441 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Proctor, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Proctor's boundary and the 2,151 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Proctor's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Proctor's 2,151 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Louis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Louis 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 St. Louis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Proctor's 2,151 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Proctor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,151 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 Proctor-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaProctor sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides