Rothsay, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rothsay, 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 Rothsay 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 Rothsay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rothsay — the short answer
Rothsay, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 549 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 549 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 Rothsay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rothsay's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rothsay
Each reading below is measured for Rothsay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRothsay runs about 171 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
MeasuredRothsay 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 Rothsay is in
Rothsay sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rothsay's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Wilkin County is mostly Lake Agassiz Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Rothsay
Every plant below cleared Rothsay's own zone 4a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rothsay?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — 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 Rothsay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rothsay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rothsay Farmers CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ROTHSAY FARMERS COOPBrownfields · 550 ft
- ISD 850 - ROTHSAY SCHOOLBrownfields · 850 ft
- Shirleys Standard SvcUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SHIRLEYS SERVICEBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Fossey TransportUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 135N44W30CCA 01 RothsayNitrate · 1900 ft
- Rothsay Truck Stop & Cafe IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Steiner GeraldUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- EVELO INCBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- 119140Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 135N46W36ABA 02Nitrate · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rothsay'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 Rothsay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rothsay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rothsay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rothsay, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Rothsay. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Rothsay
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 Rothsay average
Your land is one point inside Rothsay
Everything above resolves to Rothsay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 549 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 Rothsay Average
Rothsay Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Rothsay
- ●One soil character for all of Rothsay
- ●Frost dates read at Rothsay's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rothsay's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rothsay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rothsay, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rothsay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rothsay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rothsay average
How we know this about Rothsay
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 Rothsay’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 Rothsay
When does frost risk typically end in Rothsay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rothsay typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Rothsay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rothsay typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rothsay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rothsay sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Sep 29, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rothsay?
The federal record around Rothsay is light — 36 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Rothsay?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rothsay's scale — its 4a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rothsay'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 Rothsay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rothsay's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 549 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rothsay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rothsay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 13 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rothsay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rothsay's boundary and the 549 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Rothsay sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rothsay's 549 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilkin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilkin 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 Wilkin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rothsay's 549 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rothsay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 549 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Rothsay-wide figureread your own land →
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