Warsaw, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, turkish rocket, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Warsaw, 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 Warsaw 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 Warsaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Warsaw — the short answer
Warsaw, Minnesota: USDA zone 4b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 553 acres of town.
- 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 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 553 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 Warsaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Warsaw's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Warsaw
Each reading below is measured for Warsaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWarsaw runs about 177 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
MeasuredWarsaw 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 Warsaw is in
Warsaw sits in the North Central Hardwood Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Warsaw's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rice County.
What Grows in Warsaw
Every plant below cleared Warsaw's own zone 4b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Warsaw?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 16 — 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 Warsaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Warsaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 502732Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- HUMPHREY MANLIFT CO INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 427118Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 443133Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- NORTHERN NATURAL GAS CO - FARIBAULTBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 416250Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 434061Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- MAGELLAN PIPELINE CO LP - FARIBAULTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL #21939Brownfields · 3.7 mi
- SCOTT PAINTING - ROBERDS LAKEBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- PDCJ-C1 109N22W15ACDDDD01 0000451200Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- MALECHA'S AUTO BODY LLCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Warsaw'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 Warsaw.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Warsaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Warsaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Warsaw, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Warsaw. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Warsaw
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 Warsaw average
Your land is one point inside Warsaw
Everything above resolves to Warsaw as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 553 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 town 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 Warsaw Average
Warsaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Warsaw
- ●One soil character for all of Warsaw
- ●Frost dates read at Warsaw's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Warsaw's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Warsaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Warsaw, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Warsaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Warsaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Warsaw average
How we know this about Warsaw
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Warsaw’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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Warsaw
When does frost risk typically end in Warsaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Warsaw 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 Warsaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Warsaw typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Warsaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Warsaw sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 2, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Warsaw?
The federal record around Warsaw is a meaningful one — 377 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (163), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Warsaw?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Warsaw's scale — its 4b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Warsaw'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 Warsaw’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Warsaw's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 553 acres it covers and 377 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Warsaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Warsaw's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 16 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 377 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Warsaw, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Warsaw's boundary and the 553 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Warsaw'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 Warsaw's 553 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rice County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rice 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 Rice County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Warsaw's 553 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Warsaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 553 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Warsaw-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWarsaw sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides