Starbuck, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Starbuck, 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 Starbuck 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 Starbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Starbuck — the short answer
Starbuck, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 947 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 947 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 Starbuck's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Starbuck's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Starbuck
Each reading below is measured for Starbuck itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStarbuck runs about 175 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
MeasuredStarbuck 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 Starbuck is in
Starbuck sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Starbuck's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pope County.
What Grows in Starbuck
Every plant below cleared Starbuck's own zone 4b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Starbuck?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — 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 Starbuck
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Starbuck. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Starbuck City ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- STEVENS COMMUNITY MEDICAL CENBrownfields · 1000 ft
- STARBUCK POLICE DEPTBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Minnewaska District HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DOLLAR GENERAL 16450Brownfields · 2400 ft
- Casey's General Store #3660Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DYCAST SPECIALTIESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Pope County Highway DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 125N39W24 01 0000146343Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 125N39W13DCB 01Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 436991Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 585791Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Starbuck'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 Starbuck.
Total Sites
176
within ~10 miles of Starbuck
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Starbuck
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Starbuck
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Starbuck, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Starbuck — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (104 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Starbuck
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 Starbuck average
Your land is one point inside Starbuck
Everything above resolves to Starbuck as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 947 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 Starbuck Average
Starbuck Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Starbuck
- ●One soil character for all of Starbuck
- ●Frost dates read at Starbuck's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Starbuck's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Starbuck
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Starbuck, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Starbuck averages can't show:
We read public map data around Starbuck — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Starbuck average
How we know this about Starbuck
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 Starbuck’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 Starbuck
When does frost risk typically end in Starbuck?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Starbuck typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Starbuck?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Starbuck typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Starbuck?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Starbuck sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Sep 30, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Starbuck?
The federal record around Starbuck shows 176 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Starbuck?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Starbuck's scale — its 4b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Starbuck'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 Starbuck’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Starbuck's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 947 acres it covers and 176 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Starbuck's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Starbuck's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 14 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 176 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Starbuck, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Starbuck's boundary and the 947 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Starbuck'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 Starbuck's 947 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pope County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pope 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 Pope County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Starbuck's 947 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Starbuck you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 947 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Starbuck-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaStarbuck sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides