Redwood Falls, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Redwood 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 Redwood 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 Redwood Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Redwood Falls — the short answer
Redwood Falls, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 18
- 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
- ~181
- 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 5a is Redwood Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Redwood Falls's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Redwood Falls
Each reading below is measured for Redwood Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRedwood Falls 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
MeasuredRedwood Falls 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 Redwood Falls is in
Redwood Falls sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Redwood Falls's own centroid rather than borrowed from Redwood County.
What Grows in Redwood Falls
Every plant below cleared Redwood Falls'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 Redwood 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 Mar 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 18 (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. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Redwood Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Redwood Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIVER VALLEY HEALTH AND REHABILITATION CENTERBrownfields · 1800 ft
- REDWOOD FALLS TACCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CENTRAL BIPRODUCTSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CENTRAL BIPRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- REDWOOD FALLS DIALYSISBrownfields · 2100 ft
- BAYER- REDWOOD FALLS FOUNDATIBrownfields · 2200 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS 4969Brownfields · 2500 ft
- BROWN-WILBERT VAULT CO - REDWOOD FALLSBrownfields · 2600 ft
- DAKTRONICS INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- SCOTT PREUSSE CHEVROLET INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Schult HomesUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CMH HODGENVILLE INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Redwood 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 Redwood Falls.
Total Sites
215
within ~10 miles of Redwood Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Redwood Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Redwood Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Redwood Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Redwood Falls — CAFO (14 sites) and Nitrate (102 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Redwood 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 Redwood Falls average
Your land is one point inside Redwood Falls
Everything above resolves to Redwood Falls 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 Redwood Falls Average
Redwood Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Redwood Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Redwood Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Redwood Falls's scale: Apr 18 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Redwood Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Redwood Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Redwood Falls, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Redwood Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Redwood Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Redwood Falls average
How we know this about Redwood 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 Redwood 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 Redwood Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Redwood Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Redwood Falls typically lands around Apr 18, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Redwood Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Redwood Falls 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 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Redwood Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Redwood Falls sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 18 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 9 to Oct 2, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Redwood Falls?
The federal record around Redwood Falls is a meaningful one — 215 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Redwood Falls?
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 Redwood Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Redwood 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 Redwood Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Redwood Falls's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,380 acres it covers and 215 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Redwood Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Redwood Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 18 and Oct 16 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 215 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Redwood Falls, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Redwood Falls's boundary and the 3,380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Redwood Falls's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Redwood Falls's 3,380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Redwood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Redwood 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 Redwood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Redwood Falls's 3,380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Redwood 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 3,380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Redwood Falls-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRedwood Falls sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.