Cavalier County, in North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cavalier County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cavalier County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Cavalier County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cavalier County — the short answer
Cavalier County, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 953K acres.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 953K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 3b is Cavalier County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cavalier County's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Cavalier County
Across a year, Cavalier County accumulates about 1,502 growing degree days above 50°F, about 411 fewer than the middle North Dakota county — no other North Dakota county banks fewer. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Cavalier County
Across Cavalier County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Hamerly, Svea, and Tonka are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
34%
Hydric soils
24%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cavalier County
The USDA soil survey maps 37% of Cavalier County as moderately well drained — but another 63% drains differently: 29% somewhat poorly drained, 16% well drained.
Hamerly is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Svea (11%) and Tonka (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Cavalier County
Each reading below is measured for Cavalier County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Cavalier County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group C — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Cavalier County runs about pH 7.0–7.5, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 24% of Cavalier County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCavalier County runs about 149 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
The kind of country Cavalier County is in
Cavalier County sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Cavalier County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cavalier County's own USDA zone 3b and its own 149-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cavalier County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
Documented around Cavalier County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cavalier County
USGS estimates 248,654 lb of Glyphosate on Cavalier County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Bromoxynil (67,939 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (28,687 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Cavalier County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cavalier County — 381 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Cavalier County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cavalier County
Closest first, across Cavalier County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Grand Forks Air Force BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 161-060-21BBBNitrate · 1.7 mi
- Langdon AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Cavalier Rural Electric Coop IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- 161-060-14CDCNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 161-060-27DAB2Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- Erlings Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- 162-061-26CDB4Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- Dicks ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Fisk Service and WashUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Farmers Union Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Langdon DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cavalier County'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 Cavalier County.
Total Sites
381
across Cavalier County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Cavalier County
Severity Distribution
across Cavalier County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cavalier County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 310 sites across Cavalier County. 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 Cavalier County
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 Cavalier County average
Your land is one point inside Cavalier County
Everything above resolves to Cavalier County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 953K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Cavalier County Average
Cavalier County Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Cavalier County
- ●One soil character for all of Cavalier County
- ●Frost dates read at Cavalier County's scale: May 7 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cavalier County's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cavalier County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cavalier County, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cavalier County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cavalier County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cavalier County average
How we know this about Cavalier County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Cavalier County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cavalier County
When does frost risk typically end in Cavalier County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cavalier County typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
How long is the growing season in Cavalier County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cavalier County sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 19, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cavalier County?
The federal record around Cavalier County is a meaningful one — 381 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (310), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Cavalier County?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Cavalier County rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 7 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Cavalier County's scale — its 3b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cavalier County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads North Dakota's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Cavalier County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cavalier County's own scale — its own ~149-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 381 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cavalier County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cavalier County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cavalier CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 381 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cavalier County's boundary and the 953,039 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cavalier County sitting wholly inside the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cavalier County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cavalier County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Cavalier County — the ~149 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cavalier County's 953,039 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 381 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Cavalier Countyread your own land →