Red Lake Falls, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Lake Falls, 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 Red Lake Falls 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 Red Lake Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Lake Falls — the short answer
Red Lake Falls, Minnesota: USDA zone 3b, about 162 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- 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 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~162
- 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 3b is Red Lake Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Lake Falls's 162-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Lake Falls
Each reading below is measured for Red Lake Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed Lake Falls runs about 162 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
MeasuredRed Lake Falls 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 Red Lake Falls is in
Red Lake Falls sits in the Lake Agassiz Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Red Lake Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Red Lake County.
What Grows in Red Lake Falls
Every plant below cleared Red Lake Falls's own zone 3b and its 162-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Lake Falls?
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 9 — 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 Red Lake Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Lake Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RED LAKE COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICEBrownfields · 300 ft
- GAZETTE THEBrownfields · 400 ft
- KLEVEN FORDBrownfields · 650 ft
- AUTO VALUE - RED LAKE FALLSBrownfields · 950 ft
- Wilson BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- THIBERT CHEV & BUICK INCBrownfields · 1100 ft
- S.P. 6016-43 MN DEPT. OF TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MNDOT DELORME PITBrownfields · 1700 ft
- South StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ISD 630 RED LAKE FALLSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL STORE 17197Brownfields · 2400 ft
- TRIANGLE TIRE SALESBrownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Lake Falls'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 Red Lake Falls.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of Red Lake Falls
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Lake Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Lake Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Lake Falls, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Red Lake Falls. 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 Red Lake Falls
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 Red Lake Falls average
Your land is one point inside Red Lake Falls
Everything above resolves to Red Lake Falls 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 Red Lake Falls Average
Red Lake Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Red Lake Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Red Lake Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Red Lake Falls's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Lake Falls's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Lake Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Lake Falls, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Lake Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Lake Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Lake Falls average
How we know this about Red Lake Falls
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 Red Lake Falls’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 Red Lake Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Red Lake Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lake Falls 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 Red Lake Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lake Falls typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 162 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Lake Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Lake Falls sees about 162 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 25, about 127 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Lake Falls?
The federal record around Red Lake Falls shows 69 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), 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 Red Lake Falls?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Lake Falls's scale — its 3b band and its 162-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Lake Falls'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 Red Lake Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red Lake Falls's own scale — its own ~162-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,344 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Lake Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red Lake Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 9 and the ~162-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Lake Falls, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Lake Falls's boundary and the 1,344 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~162-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Lake Falls's own centroid, the Lake Agassiz PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Lake Falls's 1,344 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Red Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Red Lake 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 Red Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Lake Falls's 1,344 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Lake Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,344 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 Red Lake Falls-wide figureread your own land →
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