Worthington, Minnesota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Worthington, 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 Worthington 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 Worthington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Worthington — the short answer
Worthington, Minnesota: USDA zone 5a, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- 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
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K 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 5a is Worthington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Worthington's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Worthington
Each reading below is measured for Worthington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWorthington 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
MeasuredWorthington sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Worthington is in
Worthington sits in the Western Corn Belt Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Worthington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nobles County.
What Grows in Worthington
Every plant below cleared Worthington's own zone 5a and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Minnesota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Worthington?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (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 Worthington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Worthington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ISD 518 Worthington Senior High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SANFORD CLINIC - WORTHINGTONBrownfields · 800 ft
- ISD 518 WORTHINGTON SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 850 ft
- SCHWALBACH ACE HARDWAREBrownfields · 900 ft
- C&S AUTOBODY DBA ABRA AUTOBODY AND GLASS WORTHINGTONBrownfields · 1100 ft
- GRAVONS NATURAL CHIROPRACTICBrownfields · 1100 ft
- Chuck's ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Casey's General Store #2166Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HY-VEE INC - WORTHINGTONBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Walgreen's Store 10189Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Farmers State Bank of WorthingtonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Fischers AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Worthington'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 Worthington.
Total Sites
245
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Worthington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Worthington, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Worthington — CAFO (8 sites) and Nitrate (66 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 Worthington
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 Worthington average
Your land is one point inside Worthington
Everything above resolves to Worthington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Worthington Average
Worthington Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Worthington
- ●One soil character for all of Worthington
- ●Frost dates read at Worthington's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Worthington's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Worthington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Worthington, Minnesota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Worthington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Worthington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Worthington average
How we know this about Worthington
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 Worthington’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 Worthington
When does frost risk typically end in Worthington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Worthington typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Worthington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Worthington 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 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Worthington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Worthington sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Sep 30, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Worthington?
The federal record around Worthington is a meaningful one — 245 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Worthington?
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 Worthington's scale — its 5a band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Worthington'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 Worthington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Worthington's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,089 acres it covers and 245 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Worthington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Worthington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 14 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 245 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Worthington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Worthington's boundary and the 5,089 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Worthington's own centroid, the Western Corn Belt PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Worthington's 5,089 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nobles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nobles 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 Nobles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Worthington's 5,089 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Worthington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,089 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Worthington-wide figureread your own land →
More in Minnesota
Wider growing context
What grows across MinnesotaWorthington sits outside our named growing regions, so Minnesota as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides