Vergas, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vergas, 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 Vergas 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 Vergas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vergas — the short answer
Vergas, Minnesota: USDA zone 4a, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- 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
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Vergas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vergas's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vergas
Each reading below is measured for Vergas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVergas runs about 169 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
MeasuredVergas 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 Vergas is in
Vergas sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vergas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otter Tail County.
What Grows in Vergas
Every plant below cleared Vergas's own zone 4a and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vergas?
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 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (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. 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 Vergas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vergas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OTTER TAIL COUNTY GARAGE - VERGASBrownfields · 2500 ft
- Vergas Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JODY'S AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 137527Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- WEST CENTRAL ONE STOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- West Central One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 517665Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 527690Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 421939Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- SCHLAUDERAFF ENTERPRISESCAFO · 1.8 mi
- Als Stop & ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Phillips 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vergas'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 Vergas.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Vergas
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vergas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vergas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vergas, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 150 sites within ~10 miles of Vergas. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Vergas
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 Vergas average
Your land is one point inside Vergas
Everything above resolves to Vergas as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Vergas Average
Vergas Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Vergas
- ●One soil character for all of Vergas
- ●Frost dates read at Vergas's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vergas's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vergas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vergas, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vergas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vergas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vergas average
How we know this about Vergas
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 Vergas’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 Vergas
When does frost risk typically end in Vergas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vergas typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Vergas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vergas 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 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vergas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vergas sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Sep 29, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vergas?
The federal record around Vergas shows 183 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (150), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Vergas?
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 Vergas's scale — its 4a band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vergas'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 Vergas’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vergas's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,002 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vergas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vergas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 13 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vergas, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vergas's boundary and the 1,002 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vergas'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 Vergas's 1,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otter Tail County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otter Tail 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 Otter Tail County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vergas's 1,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vergas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Vergas-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaVergas sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides