Rice, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — 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 Rice, 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 Rice 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 Rice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rice — the short answer
Rice, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 4a is Rice's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rice's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rice
Each reading below is measured for Rice itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRice runs about 160 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
MeasuredRice sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a.
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 Rice is in
Rice sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rice's own centroid rather than borrowed from Benton County.
What Grows in Rice
Every plant below cleared Rice's own zone 4a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rice?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Rice
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rice. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 038N31W29CAC JERRY SCHLICHTING IRR WELLNitrate · 2300 ft
- DEASON SERVICE CENTER INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JEFFREY G HYYTINEN DDS PABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Roma of MinnesotaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FERCHE MILLWORK INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PERFORMANCE FOODSERVICE OF MIBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- VIRNIG MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- VIRNIG MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Warren Wood IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Fiedler's Your Pumping Specialists IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Rice No. 4Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- L C Auto ClinicUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rice'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 Rice.
Total Sites
244
within ~10 miles of Rice
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rice
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rice
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rice, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Rice — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (124 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 Rice
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 Rice average
Your land is one point inside Rice
Everything above resolves to Rice as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Rice Average
Rice Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Rice
- ●One soil character for all of Rice
- ●Frost dates read at Rice's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rice's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rice
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rice, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rice averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rice average
How we know this about Rice
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 Rice’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 Rice
When does frost risk typically end in Rice?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rice 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 Rice?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rice typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rice?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rice sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Sep 23, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rice?
The federal record around Rice is a meaningful one — 244 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (124), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Rice?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rice's scale — its 4a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rice'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 Rice’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rice's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,649 acres it covers and 244 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rice's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rice's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 7 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 244 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rice, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rice's boundary and the 3,649 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rice's own centroid, the North Central Hardwood ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rice's 3,649 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Benton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Benton 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 Benton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rice's 3,649 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rice you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,649 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Rice-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaRice sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides