Emmons County, in North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Emmons County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Emmons 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 Emmons County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Emmons County — the short answer
Emmons County, North Dakota: USDA zone 4a, about 161 days between hard freezes, across 965K acres.
- USDA zone
- 4a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~161
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 965K 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 4a is Emmons County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Emmons County's 161-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Emmons County
Across a year, Emmons County accumulates about 2,097 growing degree days above 50°F, about 184 more than the middle North Dakota county — ahead of 46 of North Dakota’s 53 counties. 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 Emmons County
Across Emmons County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Amor, Williams, and Temvik are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.7–7.2, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
5%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Emmons County
The USDA soil survey maps 82% of Emmons County as well drained — but another 14% drains differently: 5% moderately well drained, 3% poorly drained.
Amor is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Williams (10%) and Temvik (5%).
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 Emmons County
Each reading below is measured for Emmons 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 Emmons County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Emmons County runs about pH 6.7–7.2, 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
Season length
MeasuredEmmons County runs about 161 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
MeasuredEmmons County 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 Emmons County is in
Emmons County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Northwestern Glaciated Plains (72%) and Northwestern Great Plains (28%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Emmons County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Emmons County's own USDA zone 4a and its own 161-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 Emmons County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Emmons County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Emmons County
USGS estimates 490,212 lb of Glyphosate on Emmons County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (43,853 lb) and Dicamba (37,756 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 Emmons County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Emmons County — 522 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
There's a meaningful federal record across Emmons 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 Emmons County
Closest first, across Emmons County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 132-076-07BBCNitrate · 1.0 mi
- Holzers ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Schumacher IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Kem Electric Cooperative IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- 132-076-07DADNitrate · 1.3 mi
- Linton School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Bosch StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HEDAHLS INC - LINTONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- Martin Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 132-076-08CCB1Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Bosch Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Tesoro (Gas Plus)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Emmons 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 Emmons County.
Severity Distribution
across Emmons County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Emmons County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 496 sites across Emmons County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Emmons 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 Emmons County average
Your land is one point inside Emmons County
Everything above resolves to Emmons County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 965K 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 Emmons County Average
Emmons County Average
- ●USDA Zones 4a, averaged across Emmons County
- ●One soil character for all of Emmons County
- ●Frost dates read at Emmons County's scale: May 1 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Emmons County's 4a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Emmons County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Emmons County, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Emmons County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Emmons County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Emmons County average
How we know this about Emmons 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 Emmons County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Emmons County
When does frost risk typically end in Emmons County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Emmons County typically lands around May 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Emmons County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Emmons County sees about 161 frost-free days — roughly May 1 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 22 to Sep 25, about 126 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Emmons County?
The federal record around Emmons County is a meaningful one — 522 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (496), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Emmons County's scale — its 4a band and its 161-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Emmons 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 Emmons County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Emmons County's own scale — its own ~161-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 522 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Emmons County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Emmons County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~161-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Emmons CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 522 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Emmons County's boundary and the 965,376 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4a and a ~161-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Emmons County spans, Northwestern Glaciated Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Emmons County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Emmons 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 Emmons County — the ~161 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 Emmons County's 965,376 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 522 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 Emmons Countyread your own land →