Sartell, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Sartell, 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 Sartell 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 Sartell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sartell — the short answer
Sartell, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- 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
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Sartell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sartell's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sartell
Each reading below is measured for Sartell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSartell runs about 163 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
MeasuredSartell 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 Sartell is in
Sartell sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sartell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stearns County.
What Grows in Sartell
Every plant below cleared Sartell's own zone 4b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sartell?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (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. 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 Sartell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sartell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Caseys General Store #2292Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 125N28W21DACCDA01-1 0000215302Nitrate · 1800 ft
- SARTELL AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2000 ft
- DEZURIK INCToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- DEZURIK INCBrownfields · 2400 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 25338Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS - 1572Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SARTELL HYDROBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- VERSO PAPER CORP SARTELL MILLToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- VERSO PAPER CORP SARTELL MILLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Sartell High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KRILLANBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sartell'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 Sartell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sartell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sartell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sartell, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 354 sites within ~10 miles of Sartell. 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 Sartell
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 Sartell average
Your land is one point inside Sartell
Everything above resolves to Sartell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Sartell Average
Sartell Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Sartell
- ●One soil character for all of Sartell
- ●Frost dates read at Sartell's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sartell's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sartell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sartell, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sartell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sartell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sartell average
How we know this about Sartell
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 Sartell’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 Sartell
When does frost risk typically end in Sartell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sartell typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sartell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sartell 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 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sartell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sartell sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 25, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sartell?
The federal record around Sartell is a meaningful one — 1,302 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (610), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sartell?
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 Sartell's scale — its 4b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sartell'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 Sartell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sartell's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,686 acres it covers and 1,302 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sartell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sartell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 9 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,302 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sartell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sartell's boundary and the 6,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sartell'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 Sartell's 6,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stearns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stearns 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 Stearns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sartell's 6,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sartell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,686 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sartell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaSartell sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides