Dunseith, North Dakota, sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, epazote, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dunseith, 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 Dunseith 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 Dunseith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunseith — the short answer
Dunseith, North Dakota: USDA zone 3b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 641 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 3b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 641 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 3b is Dunseith's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunseith's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunseith
Each reading below is measured for Dunseith itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunseith runs about 144 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredDunseith sits in USDA hardiness zone 3b.
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 Dunseith is in
Dunseith sits in the Northern Glaciated Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dunseith's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rolette County.
What Grows in Dunseith
Every plant below cleared Dunseith's own zone 3b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's North Dakota profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunseith?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Dunseith
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunseith. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Garden View Drive Inn SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- BENCHMARK ELECTRONICS INCToxics Release Inventory · 450 ft
- Davis SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Lamoureux Garage Custom AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Cenex C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Highway Service ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- George's GatheringUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 162-073-25AADNitrate · 1.4 mi
- SAN HAVEN CISTERNSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- Decoteau C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Four Winds ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Vivs C StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunseith'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 Dunseith.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Dunseith
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunseith
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunseith
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dunseith, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Dunseith. 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 Dunseith
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 Dunseith average
Your land is one point inside Dunseith
Everything above resolves to Dunseith as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 641 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 Dunseith Average
Dunseith Average
- ●USDA Zones 3b, averaged across Dunseith
- ●One soil character for all of Dunseith
- ●Frost dates read at Dunseith's scale: May 8 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunseith's 3b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunseith
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunseith, North Dakota — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunseith averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunseith — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunseith average
How we know this about Dunseith
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 Dunseith’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 Dunseith
When does frost risk typically end in Dunseith?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunseith typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Dunseith?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunseith typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunseith?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunseith sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 15, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunseith?
The federal record around Dunseith is a meaningful one — 110 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunseith?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Dunseith 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Dunseith's scale — its 3b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunseith'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 Dunseith’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dunseith's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 641 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunseith's own USDA hardiness band, zones 3bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunseith's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Sep 29 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunseith, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunseith's boundary and the 641 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 3b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunseith's own centroid, the Northern Glaciated PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunseith's 641 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rolette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rolette County
- The growing challenges every North Dakota grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom North Dakota
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Rolette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunseith's 641 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunseith you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 641 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dunseith-wide figureread your own land →
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